Chateau Pape Clement Blanc 2017

Professional Ratings

• 97 Jeb Dunnuck

  The 2017 Chateau Pape Clement Blanc showed spectacularly well and is one of the wines (if not the wine) of the vintage. Based on 55% Sauvignon and 45% Semillon aged 14 months in barrel, it offers powerful notes of honeyed melon, tart pineapple, green figs, and floral notes as well as a terrific sense of minerality. Concentrated, medium to full-bodied, with rocking levels of acidity, give it 2-4 years and enjoy over the following 15 years or more.

• 96 James Suckling

  Aromas of pineapple, peaches and apple pie with stone. Deep and intense, yet always subtle in the nose. Full-bodied, layered and very flavorful. However, it stays focused and precise in the mouth and at the finish. Serious length. Still needs three or four years to come together. Better after 2022.

• 95 Wine Spectator

  This features a beeswax frame around a large-scaled core of wet straw, creamed white peach, yellow apple and fennel flavors, while a racy quinine thread runs underneath. Shows a flash of brioche on the finish, with the beeswax element lingering. Needs a little time, but this is distinctive and beautiful. Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle. Best from 2021 through 2029. 

• 94 Decanter
  This has a tautness and an intensity to it, with extremely well placed citrus and white peach flesh, a lick of fresh slate and some wet stones. Good quality.
  Barrel Sample
• 94 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The Pape Clement 2017 Blanc (composed of 55% Sauvignon Blanc and 45% Sémillon) has loads of exotic fruit—pineapple, green guava and passion fruit—with crushed stones, fragrant herbs and mandarin peel hints. The palate is medium-bodied, intense and racy with a long, pure, exotic fruit finish. Rating: 94+

• 91 Wine Enthusiast

  Taut, steely and textured, this is a cool, crisp wine. With acidity and minerality all in play, the wine’s long-term future is balanced by its immediate fruitiness. Drink this well-structured wine from 2021.