2009 Chateau Clinet Pomerol

[Claudius2]

We seem to only occasionally drink Pomerols but I felt like something different.
This wine was an en primeur purchase and had been in storage for nearly a decade.
I decanted it a few hours before dinner and we sipped it with steak Diane.

Colour shows a touch of mahogany, not the blue-black I recall several years ago.
Nose was initially smoky and spicy, the French oak framing the nose and palate.
The fruit then hits the nose and Wendy mentioned every berry fruit you can think of - dark cherry, blueberry, mulberry, cassis, violets, raspberry etc. Some spice and vanilla. Some tobacco and herbs showed with time in the Zeiss decanter.

The oak is still quite firm but not overdone. There is a touch of alcohol heat but I think I’m getting overly sensitive to it. Acid and tannins are well managed. The wine is still young but quite drinkable and it shows quite an array of flavours.

I drank a bottle of this when it first landed here and it was a total fruit bomb. Now it is a semi mature right bank which will continue to evolve for some time. I have quite a lot of 2009’s and must pull a few more out to try. This is an excellent wine.

Cheers
Mark

[JimHow]

I think that was an RMP100 as I recall, I remember Gerry alerted me that NH had some in stock for $150 and I bought a bottle.

[jckba]

Nice note and I missed out on buying this pre the 100 rating and then refused to pay up afterwards.

[Claudius2]

Guys
I forgot it got 100 points but the wine is a different animal to what it was on arrival.
I opened a bottle literally the day it arrived largely as one of the dinner guests brought along an 89 Lafite, 2002 Rousseau Chambertin and a few other revered wines. The baby Clinet got opened as it got even more RP Jnr points....

Okay I was slightly inebriated after opening a long line of wines but the baby Clinet 09 jumped out of the glass and said “I got 100 points!!”

I really like this wine an am not arguing about how many points anyone assigned to it but wow, every black, red, blue and purple grape can be found meshed to French oak, spices and tobacco. I’m almost finished and now getting a touch of chocolate and earth.

I have a case of 2005 Lafleur in the storage unit and wonder if it will taste better...

Cheers
Mark

[AKR]

Very impressive! I was looking at some aggregate metrics last night....Pomerol AOC in toto is less than 1% of Bordeaux production of all wine.

[JimHow]

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a Clinet before.
I have a single bottle of the 2009 and 2012 in my cellar.

[OrlandoRobert]

Very impressive! I was looking at some aggregate metrics last night....Pomerol AOC in toto is less than 1% of Bordeaux production of all wine.

Wow, would not have thought that!

While I waffle from time to time, it does tend to be my favorite appellation.

[Gerry M.]

Along with Jim I also bought 1 bottle of the 09' and holding on to it. My only other Clinet is 3 bottles of 15'

It's nice to read the positive notes at this stage of the game.

[Nicklasss]

Very interesting comment Claudius.

It is always interesting to read "normal wine lover" point of view vs any 100 points wine tasted. From your comment, i can understand the 2009 Chateau Clinet is a special wine, and that it is already great but need a few more years to show it full potential.

If you had the 2009 Chateau Léoville Poyferré, another 100 points wine, I would be interested to know what you thought about it, to compare.

The 2009 Bordeaux are quite good.

[JimHow]

Is Clinet good, or is it some high alcohol Robert Parker - Jeff Leve wannabe like La Gaffeliere and Canon la Gaffeliere?

[Claudius2]

Nic
I don't have the 09 Leoville Poyferre.
The last vintage I bought of LP was 2004 and after that, the price here started getting rather high and thus I gave it a miss.
I have had various vintages from the 70's. 80's and 90's but it never really blew me away.

One point about the 09 Clinet is that it was not an overly alcoholic fruit bomb though I did note a little heat on the palate.
Luckily it wasn't overtly hot and there was some grainy, chalky tannins and the fruit was not porty, over-ripe or what us Aussies call "dead fruit" character.

It does however reinforce my view that 14% is high for Bordeaux and I am now making sure I check the alcohol level for all wines, irrespective of region, vintage, etc. Had a 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape last week with 15% alcohol, and as it warmed and opened up, the alcohol started getting spirity and too spiky for me.

cheers
Mark

[JoelD]

Nic
I don't have the 09 Leoville Poyferre.
The last vintage I bought of LP was 2004 and after that, the price here started getting rather high and thus I gave it a miss.
I have had various vintages from the 70's. 80's and 90's but it never really blew me away.

One point about the 09 Clinet is that it was not an overly alcoholic fruit bomb though I did note a little heat on the palate.
Luckily it wasn't overtly hot and there was some grainy, chalky tannins and the fruit was not porty, over-ripe or what us Aussies call "dead fruit" character.

It does however reinforce my view that 14% is high for Bordeaux and I am now making sure I check the alcohol level for all wines, irrespective of region, vintage, etc. Had a 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape last week with 15% alcohol, and as it warmed and opened up, the alcohol started getting spirity and too spiky for me.

cheers
Mark

Good to hear, i've strayed from the 09 because the price is too high but I have a 2005 and some 2016. I hear the 08 is a great wine for the value.

I couldn't agree more about the alcohol percentage, especially in bordeaux. 14 is the cutoff for me, sometimes it feels high, but some wines handle it. 14.5 almost always takes away from the experience.

I just got an entire palate of wine in, and checked the alc levels on almost all of them. Some 2015 Barolo's checking in at 15%, which seems ridiculous.

[Claudius2]

Jim
The alcohol level wasn't overtly over the top with the 09. At 14% the alcohol was evident but not to the point where it was porty or spririty.
So I am saying that it walks a fine line.
Based on the 09, I will not say it is an RPJnr special.
The 2012 is I think 13.1%. Sounds reasonable.

Yet the 2015 is 14.3% and the 2018 is 14.5%.
Now I keep hearing that hi alcohol is just a data point, that it is not in itself bad (whatever) but when I drink them, they lack freshness, balance and poise. Even worse, the hi alcohol wines often fall apart when aged as the component parts of the wine seem to separate out somehow. When the fruit and tannins mature, they can be left with just a load of alcohol and not much else.

At tastings, the higher alcohol wines can taste vibrant when first opened, and when they are left in a decanter for a few hours, they start to unwind and not in a nice way. It is for these reasons that many Australian makers have had to re-think their views on ripeness, alcohol and overall balance. And they have seen their highly priced wines tank at auction.

My view now is that if the label says over 14%, I am simply walking away.
That may sound simplistic but over the years, I have got more sensitive to hi alcohol and I seriously do not like it.
The Chateauneuf du Pape last week for example was 15% and the alcohol seriously intruded. Yet 15% isn't uncommon in that wine.

Anyway I think you get my point as I have been ranting about it for some years.

[AlexR]

Mark,

OMG, 1989 Lafite. How was it?

The most expensive bottle of wine in my cellar is 2002 Chambertin from Armand Rousseau.
Costs in excess of 2,000 euros today.
I bought it for a tenth of that!

I'd be fascinated to hear where it's at .

All the best,
Alex

[Antoine]

Lucky Alex: Rousseau Chambertin 2002... This should be good in time but when will you dare opening it?

[AlexR]

Antoine,

For a benchmark birthday or wedding anniversary.

I would never sell any of my wine.

Of course, I understand people who do but, as for myself, almost every bottle has a story connected with it.
Also, to enjoy diversity, I rarely purchase full cases. It would be a nightmare to liquidate my collection when I go to the Great Wine Cellar in the Sky .
That having been said, I do have things in computer file(s).

All the best,
Alex R.

[Claudius2]

Alex,
on that night, there was a lot of different wines consumed and the 89 Lafite was clearly the best vintage I've had. It was fuller bodied than most other Lafites, with dark fruit and that classic cedary/cigar box character of Pauillac. Tasted blind, I may have guessed Latour, though with a touch more perfume.

The Rousseau Chambertin was very powerful (I mean for a Burgundy) with masses of deep fruit and layers and layers of flavours. Very Chambertin in style.

The Clinet was the last bottle to be opened and we also consumed several other wines (8 people) including Champagne and a few pretty good white Burgundies. The youthful character of the Clinet wasn't out of place surprisingly. I think I opened it in a slightly inebriated state. I poured it into a decanter, swished it a few times and poured it. I asked everyone to guess how many points it got from RP and most said around 96. Yet nobody looked surprised when I said 100. Oh well.

On the issue of auctions, I sent a LOT of wine to auction when I move to Singapore.
I initially wanted to bring it over, but I could not find decent storage here (though there are a few good facilities now) and I was also worried about the damage from freight and handling. The few wines I did bring over were rather variable when they got here, and it did take me some years to eventually sell it off, in my case, little by little. I did sell some privately but when you are flying in and out, it was hard to organise.

I never buy wine with the intention of selling it.
I invest in a lot of other things instead, but I have now forced myself to slow down to a trickle new purchases as I have quite a few Bordeaux and Burgundy, mainly from 2005 onward.

cheers
Mark

[AKR]

I think a lot of the people who gloat on the interwebs about all the money they make selling their 82 Le Pin, 90 DRC etc. leave out all the other wines that didn't appreciate which soaked up storage/insurance/theft risks for decades.

[Antoine]

Antoine,

For a benchmark birthday or wedding anniversary.

I would never sell any of my wine.

Of course, I understand people who do but, as for myself, almost every bottle has a story connected with it.
Also, to enjoy diversity, I rarely purchase full cases. It would be a nightmare to liquidate my collection when I go to the Great Wine Cellar in the Sky .
That having been said, I do have things in computer file(s).

All the best,
Alex R.

Alex,
I would not suggest selling! (unless you are in real financial trouble) especially if you only have 1!
But I find it difficult to open my best bottles... especially when they are unique... Mind you it helps me age them... (just as developing a taste for Burgundy has helped me mature all these Bordeaux I bought 15-25 years ago...)...