Château Pape Clément 2015

A magnificent nose—powerful yet highly refined—with pronounced fruit and the characteristic smoky note. On the palate, it is dense, almost chewy, with intense, lingering aromas, great minerality, and a delightful liveliness.

Its name alone speaks to the status this estate has enjoyed for the past thirty years. Here, everything borders on perfection: the white and red wines are elegant and sophisticated.

 

The 2015 white wine comes from low yields of just 29.5 hl/ha. It is vinified and aged 85% in barrels—50% of which are new—and 15% in ovoid concrete tanks, after being harvested with virtually no sorting and at an earlier harvest date to preserve freshness and tension.  It offers a lovely fruity expression and freshness, with a profile influenced by Sauvignon Blanc.

Bernard Magrez, who also owns the châteaux La Tour Carnet (Haut-Médoc) and Fombrauge (Saint-Émilion), has made this estate his flagship. Nothing is left to chance in the quest to produce the greatest wine possible. The pursuit of optimal ripeness, hand-destemming, and lavish aging… This is the archetype of a modern, luxurious Bordeaux that captivates immediately and evolves with great charm. On the flip side, some vintages have occasionally veered toward excess. Time, however, sets things right and tempers the wine’s fiery spirit, as the terroir eventually reasserts itself. Nevertheless, since the 2012 vintage, a shift in style has been noticeable, moving toward wines less marked by the sometimes excessive pursuit of ripeness and toward less aggressive aging—a trend clearly evident in our recent tastings, particularly with the 2015 vintage. The estate produces a small quantity of a white wine (aged partly in ovoid concrete tanks) that is delicately musky and possesses an elegance that places it at the forefront of Sauvignon-dominated Graves wines.