| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Clos de l'Oratoire
A flamboyant St.-Emilion, this largely-Merlot blend displays notes of Christmas fruitcake, cedar wood, tobacco leaf, and loads of black currant and blackberry fruit. A showy, extravagantly concentrated, hedonistic style of St.-Emilion, with some wood smoke and roasted herbs adding nuance to the full-throttle aromatics and long, lush, silky flavors, this wine can be drunk now or cellared for up to 15+ years.
Loads of aniseed and black licorice aromas. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a lovely balance of fruit, and everything else. Love the length. 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Cabernet Franc.
Very sweet and rich and opulent and fresh and lively. Slithery texture. Date tasted 30th March 2010. Drink 2014-2027.
This is very suave, with mocha and smoldering tobacco flavors laced with fig, plum and blackberry notes. A flash of sweet tapenade and iron helps extend the finish, which has lovely latent minerality. This shows great restraint, considering its power of fruit. Best from 2015 through 2027.-J.M.
Round, ripe, supple, gourmand. Concentrated, confit note. Hail reduced yields to 20hl/ha. Drink 2014-2024.
The 2009 Clos de l'Oratoire, a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc that achieved 13.5% natural alcohol, exhibits an inky/ruby/purple color along with a big, sweet nose of incense, blackberries, blueberries, cedar, and spice box. Rich, opulent, and full-bodied, this offering is a complete turn-on that should provide enormous pleasure over the next 10-15 years. (Tasted four times.) Drink 2010-2025.
Stefan von Neipperg's 25-acre St.-Emilion estate (planted in clay and limestone) had slight hail damage, which resulted in somewhat smaller yields (28 hectoliters per hectare).
Tasted at Canon-la-Gaffeliere, cropped at just 20hl/ha between 7th and 12th October, a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, this has an opulent bouquet with pure black cherries, black plum, a touch of wet sand and a hint of cooked meat. The palate is medium-bodied with creamy new oak, quite plush, modern, but very seductive with a hint of savoury fruit, perhaps even a touch of dried salami towards the finish that adds another level of intrigue. Very fine. Tasted March 2010.
