Château L'Église Clinet 2019
This great wine of Pomerol... that is L'Eglise Clinet represents a surface of 4,5 hectares of vines. The average age of the vines is 45 years, which allows us to obtain naturally low yields and to control the quality of the grapes that will make the future vintage.
The talented and perfectionist Denis Durentou left us in 2020, leaving the place to his three daughters united and determined to continue the work of their father.
All the vines are worked in reasoned culture and moreover, by hand. It is in the concern of respecting a magnificent terroir made of clay gravel and clay. The manual harvest which takes place when the grapes are perfectly ripe phenolic allows a sorting according to the quality of the grapes.
Denis Durantou also produces a second wine, called chateau-la-petite-eglise.
Hard to beat as an example of the beating heart of Pomerol, with juicy but slowly delivered fruit, plump black currant and blackberry cut and spliced with precision. The austerity of the first tannins hides depths of generous licorice, slate, pencil lead, with spices of grated white radish and black pepper.
Powerful, unyielding, it's not giving it all away yet, but it's getting better and better, and in the glass, as it opens up, you get a proudly fleshy, generous feel for the fruit. It still has years to go before it's ready to drink, but it already makes you smile.
An exceptional final vintage under the direction of Denis Durantou, who passed away in May 2020.
Jane Anson, January 2022
The 2019 Church-Clinet has a brilliantly defined bouquet reminiscent of the equally impressive Trotanoy I tasted a few hours earlier. Crystalline red fruits and blood orange notes intermingle with crushed stone and truffle. The palate is medium-bodied, with an immediately seductive, satiny texture that masks the backbone of this Pomerol.
Slightly spicy and unfolding with intent on the finish, it will be, as I've written before, the perfect testament to Denis Durantou as his daughters continue his legacy.
Neal Martin, vinous.com, February 2022
The 2019 Church-Clinet is dazzlingly beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful. Finesse and power come together in a Pomerol that thrones with dazzling intensity. Gravel, dried herbs, flowers, mocha and licorice fly from the glass.
In 2019, L'Eglise-Clinet is a vertical wine, a wine of stature, class, and pedigree that will reward those lucky enough to own it with many years of very good drinking. It is impossible to taste the 2019 without thinking of the late Denis Durantou and what he accomplished in his last vintage.
Daughters Constance and Noémi Durantou seem to truly understand the legacy they were charged with honoring, and then building themselves.
Antonio Galloni, vinous.com, February 2022
Data sheet
- Designation
- Pomerol
- Year
- 2019
- Color
- Red
- Acceptance
- 90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc.
- Apogee
- 2026 - 2056
Vinous / Antonio Galloni - Noté 98/100 (february 2022)
James Suckling - Noté 99-100/100 (june 2020)
Vinous / Neal Martin - Noté 98/100 (february 2022)
Jean-Marc Quarin - Noté 98/100 (february 2022)
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Noté 98-100/100 (june 2020)
Decanter / Jane Anson - Noté 99/100 (june 2020)
