Clos de l’Oratoire, 2016 Update
This is the penultimate Bordeaux Quartet report, and once again I return to St Emilion to look at another of the properties owned and run by Stephan von Neipperg, namely Clos de l’Oratoire. And once again I provide further evidence of my inability to count because, as was also the case with my preceding report on the latest releases from Château Le Crock, there are only three wines in this ‘quartet’. Why? Because, in both cases, only three wines were poured. I state this just to dispel any thoughts that I might have omitted some wines, perhaps because I didn’t like them. I wouldn’t do that, because I have never been one to shy away from criticising a wine I didn’t like. Is that not the role of a critic?
So here goes with three vintages from Clos de l’Oratoire, the lesser of the three famous von Neipperg St Emilion estates (he does own a fourth, Château Peyreau, but these wines have never been poured for me).
Three Vintages
It will probably come as no surprise by now to learn that the wine I started with here, the 2015 vintage, was the better of the three vintages poured, by a country mile. With all its perfumed black cherry fruit, it was remarkably more convincing than the two older vintages poured. The first of these was the 2014, which showed some evolution and a surprisingly light red-cherry and cranberry-fruit character, washed with freshening acidity. The next was the 2013 vintage, which came in third place but which – like the 2013s from the other von Neipperg estates – is still an impressive result for the vintage. Yes, it has all the tart fruit and acid-defined leanness of texture we expect from this very difficult year, but there is also a sense of harmony, freshness and easy approachability to it. For such a washout vintage, this wine is a relative success. (11/6/16)
