Château L’Église-Clinet: Tasting & Drinking
The ultimate quality of the wines of Château L’Église-Clinet is exceptional, a statement I make based on tasting several vintages in their youth, and a good number of vintages in maturity. Starting with my assessments and of 2016 and 2015 and first working backwards, both vintages show that quality here is as high as ever. The 2014 is a smart wine, an excellent result in what was a somewhat over-rated vintage, while the 2013 was for me always one of the better wines in this otherwise horrendous vintage. Perhaps my first encounter with the 2012 vintage was my most memorable tasting here though. This was a year that favoured right-bank appellations, nevertheless during the primeur tastings I seem to recall I was feeling a little underwhelmed. And then I came to the 2012 Château L’Église-Clinet, streets ahead of anything else I had tasted all week, and clearly the wine of the vintage. To pull such unparalleled success out of the hat, in such conditions, is the mark of true talent.
The 2011 was also pretty smart, while in the 2010 and 2009 vintages the grand vin was nothing short of superb, and I was impressed by the corresponding vintages of La Petite Église (pictured below, in the 2005 vintage) – this is not a second wine to be sneezed at. In fact, it has the honour of being the only Bordeaux second wine that I have added to my own cellar in recent years (now that the days of buying Les Forts de Latour and Carruades de Lafite with the thought of actually drinking them seem to have passed, anyway). As for more mature vintages, the 2005, 2000 and 1998 are some obvious choices, along with the 1995, and a surprisingly good 2006. In truth, though, even lesser years such as 2002 and 1997 are worth a punt here, as the effort and character shines through.
And now to more recent vintages. The 2017 vintage does not have a special reputation in Bordeaux, it being heavily frosted, but many wines have turned out well, especially those protected from frost, and estates on the high-point of the Pomerol hill are included in this cabal. After that, in a run of fine vintages for the region, we have a run of very fine wines from L’Église-Clinet. The 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages are divine, as good a Pomerol as you could wish for. So too the 2025, 2023 and 2022 vintages, written in ascending order of how much I swooned over them. Having said that, even the 2021 and 2024 vintages are worth checking out at this address.
There is a streak of stunning confidence running through these wines, with some more recent vintages being extremely convincing, and as a result Château L’Église-Clinet is today, to my mind, one of the leading estates of Pomerol. Denis Durantou was a winemaker I admired greatly, not just for the grandeur of the wines of his ‘home’ estate, but also for the string of great-value wines that he made alongside it. I wish Constance Durantou all the best as she continues with the management of this fine portfolio of properties. (28/7/11, updated 12/3/14, 24/3/18, 8/8/20, 5/11/23, 21/8/26)
