Château Clinet 2021

The 2021 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 85/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Frost followed by a cool summer brought back classic wines, lighter and more taut, to be drunk in their youth.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

« A vintage ranked among the good vintages, suffused with softness and expressing a beautiful palette of aromas. CLINET 2021 displays gorgeous layers of deep, dark ruby. Wonderfully expressive on the nose, it unfolds well-defined aromas of ripe fruit (raspberry, blackberry, blackcurrant) and oriental spice, sprinkled with floral notes. Connoisseurs will recognize CLINET’s signature style, albeit with a touch of originality in the proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon (25%), which is higher than usual in this vintage. With its soft mouthfeel and silky tannins, the wine is still beautifully intense and lingers pleasingly on the palate. One can but relish this wine’s aromatic richness and precision, and take delight in its grace and harmony. »

Ronan LABORDE, owner & CEO

The vintage

A plot of Merlot was grubbed up at the end of 2019, resulting in a production area of 10.2 hectares and an increased proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon in the vine population at 25%.

A “long-haul” vintage, with rather demanding weather conditions, marked by a quick start, a dull mid-season, and ending with a radiant homestretch, which proved to be a decisive factor in gradually and gently reaching just the right level of ripeness.

The harvested grapes were medium-to-large in size and in good sanitary condition. They had achieved good levels of maturity: 13° potential alcohol, while the phenolic / tannic levels were quite high. A relatively consistent level of quality across both grape varieties; however, the Cabernet Sauvignon displayed more concentration than the Merlot, which is unusual.

Average vatting periods of 26 days, with gentle extraction of the phenolic components (pumping over and rack-and-return). High total acidity levels, together with normal-to-low pH levels for our terroir, preserve the freshness of this vintage’s wines.

Blend of the 2021 vintage

Figures from the 2021 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol

Winemaking

Manual sorting. Light crushing. A “Galiléo” rotating concrete vat for vinification without pumping. Stainless steel vats, perfectly designed to house the different plots of CLINET. Vats equipped with an alveolar, double-walled, adjustable thermoregulation system. Manual punching down

Ageing

80% new barrels, 20% second-fill barrels, including traditional “barriques bordelaises” (225 litres) and large “Burgundy” barrels (500 litres). Use of the OXOLINE system, to reduce “bâtonnage” (stirring of the lees). Expected ageing time: +16 months

Terroir

Autrefois rattaché aux vins de Saint-Emilion, Pomerol a su gagner seule ses lettres de noblesse depuis 1936, date à laquelle elle obtint son statut d'AOC. (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée). D'une superficie inférieure à 800 ha, c'est la plus petite des grandes régions viticoles du Bordelais. Pomerol est aussi la seule des grandes appellations de la région à n'avoir jamais connu de classement hiérarchique. Campée sur la Rive Droite de la Dordogne, le climat y est plus chaud que dans le Médoc (Rive Gauche) et le sol plus frais et humide.

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