Château Pape Clément 2011 - Grand Cru Classé de Graves

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.

Although a bit young right now, it is built for the future. Its dense tannins and powerful yet restrained character will come into their own over time. It will open up and express its very flavorful black fruit with great intensity.

The 2011 Pape Clément offers notes of pencil shavings, charcoal, barbecued meat, black cherry, blackcurrant, and plum. It is a full-bodied, dense, and precise wine, endowed with a beautiful elegance. Purity, presence on the palate, and a complex aromatic profile always shine in a Pape Clément. This vintage should be enjoyed over the next 15 to 24 years.

 

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.