Winemaker Notes
The 2019 features a beautiful blazing deep purple color. It opens up with a complex nose of blackberry notes and a touch of fresh wild strawberry and carries on with a subtle coffee flavor given by barrel ageing. The palate is balanced between a precise structure and fresh blackberry and blackcurrant notes. A delicious palate is sustained by silky and strong tannins, delivering all the power of this vintage. The 2019 vintage reveals all the delicacy of a great Pomerol.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A perfumed nose of blackberries, dark cherries, violets, bark, mocha, dried flowers and smoke. Full-bodied with fine, ripe tannins. Fleshy and balanced with an intense core of fruit and chocolate. Refined and gorgeously textured with a long, vibrant finish. Drink from 2025.
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Decanter
The Pomerol estate owned by Stephen and Denise Adams of Fonplégade. This is gorgeous, has a bounce in its step, lovely firm supple blackberry and black cherry fruits with a lot of juice that gives lift and character to the fruit. Full of chocolate shavings and mocha-edged charcoal. Very good.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Very deep purple-black colored, the 2019 L'Enclos has a classic nose of warm black plums, baked blackberries and black cherry preserves with hints of cedar chest, clove oil, licorice and smoked meats with just a touch of fragrant earth. The full-bodied palate is chock-full of concentrated black fruits with a firm, ambitious backbone of ripe, rounded tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and earthy.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Wine Spectator
Features ripe plum and blackberry fruit flavors with a slightly baked hint, plus black tea, cedar and savory details that add range and energy through the plush finish. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Best from 2023.
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Jeb Dunnuck
An outstanding effort, the 2019 Château L'Enclos sports a dense purple hue to go with ripe, powerful aromatics of black cherries, cedary spice, iron, and subtle chocolate and earthy notes. It's textured, balanced, and medium to full-bodied, with ripe tannins. Drink it over the coming 10-15 years. Best after 2022.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
A source of exceptionally sensual and glamorous red wines, Pomerol is actually a rather small appellation in an unassuming countryside. It sits on a plateau immediately northeast of the city of Libourne on the right bank of the Dordogne River. Pomerol and St-Émilion are the stars of what is referred to as Right Bank Bordeaux: Merlot-dominant red blends completed by various amounts of Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. While Pomerol has no official classification system, its best wines are some of the world’s most sought after.
Historically Pomerol attached itself to the larger and more picturesque neighboring region of St-Émilion until the late 1800s when discerning French consumers began to recognize the quality and distinction of Pomerol on its own. Its popularity spread to northern Europe in the early 1900s.
After some notable vintages of the 1940s, the Pomerol producer, Petrus, began to achieve great international attention and brought widespread recognition to the appellation. Its subsequent distribution by the successful Libourne merchant, Jean-Pierre Mouiex, magnified Pomerol's fame after the Second World War.
Perfect for Merlot, the soils of Pomerol—clay on top of well-drained subsoil—help to create wines capable of displaying an unprecedented concentration of color and flavor.
The best Pomerol wines will be intensely hued, with qualities of fresh wild berries, dried fig or concentrated black plum preserves. Aromas may be of forest floor, sifted cocoa powder, anise, exotic spice or toasted sugar and will have a silky, smooth but intense texture.