Pape Clément 2015

The clarity to this wine is impressive. Wealth of dark-plum and black-fruit essence not to mention orange citrus. Everything is dialed up to the limit here but then dialed in on the palate. Such impressive depth and suave, ripe, fluid tannins that deliver impressive length. Great wine. Such polish. Superb. Try from 2022.

As with the white, the 2015 Château Pape Clément is up at the top of the hierarchy and is a tour de force in Red Bordeaux that should be snatched up by readers. Coming from a 50-hectare parcel of the gravelly soils and harvest between September 25th and October 15th, it’s a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc that saw a long maceration (30-40 days) and 18 months in 80% new French oak. With a deep ruby/plum color and awesome notes of currants, black cherries, truffles, chocolate and graphite, this beauty hits the palate with a massive, full-bodied, opulent, sexy, yet never heavy style. With terrific concentration, perfect balance, and ripe tannin, as well as plenty of oak, give bottles 4-5 years of cellaring and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades. Tasted three times. 2023 - 2053

The 2015 Pape-Clément has a fragrant bouquet with quite plush, generous but well defined red berry fruit mixed with rose petal and incense, smoke and cigar humidor following later. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin, crisp and focused. A seam of graphite emerges toward the finish. This is linear and correct at the moment. This should develop into a very fine Pessac-Léognan, one full of breed and sophistication. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

Medium to deep garnet colored, the 2015 Pape Clement Rouge is a little closed to start before sashaying out with beautiful notes of black cherries, mulberries, and creme de cassis, plus hints of Chinese five spice and unsmoked cigars. The full-bodied palate delivers concentrated black fruit preserves flavors, with loads of spicy accents and velvety texture, finishing with great length.

Tasted blind. Sweet and round and succulent – a wine that, for once among Graves 2015s, has fruit and lusciousness enough to stand up to the tannins. Really rather glorious.
Drink 2024-2038

Deepish crimson. Seductively ripe damson fruit. Rich and chewy, full-bodied and firmly structured for the long term. Much better balance than some previous vintages I have tasted. (JH) 14.5%
Drink 2025-2040

Owner Bernard Magrez has made serious investments here since the late 1990's and recent vintages have been outstanding thanks to extremely low yields, labour-intensive sorting of grapes and modern wine-making techniques. Quality bears no relation to the weedy wines of the early 1980's and before. The 42 hectares are planted with 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot. This year there is more Cabernet in the final blend (60%) with 40% Merlot. Deep and viscous purple in the glass, this wine has a very smoky, toasty, creamy nose of blackcurrants and blackberries. The palate leads with kirsch and barbecued black fruits as the tannins grip the sides of the mouth. This is a blockbuster with lots of power, with the retention of enough acidity and graphite lift to find a smoky balance on the long finish.

Ripe on the nose the palate has a fleshy richness supple in the middle. There is balance with bramble freshness behind the rich ripe black plum and although full and ripe on the back palate the finish is lighter and fresher.

Massively inky and powerful, but ever so moreish and chewy, this is an example of a potentially over-the-top wine which manages to keep its feet on the ground and capture the essence of the vintage and also its property very accurately.