Region | |
---|---|
Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pessac-Léognan |
Colour | White |
Type | Still |
Very impressive pear and dried-peach fruits with very subtle mealy, savory notes. The palate delivers impressive weight, amazing power and depth here. Richness and great prowess. Tight now. Give it three or four years to open.
Apricots, honeysuckle, fresh pineapple, and straw all jump from the nose of the 2015 Pape Clement Blanc, followed by hints of beeswax and cedar. The medium to full-bodied palate has an opulent oiliness to the texture, with lively acidity and bags of tropical and citrus fruits, finishing long.
Big and bold on the nose. Very rich, almost sweet, and then, for the moment, the crisp citrus bit on the finish is not (yet?) integrated. Quite a show stopper but possibly too big and rich to marry with food easily.
Drink 2018-2026
Not particularly aromatic though there is a light oily spice suggesting richness. Super-creamy on the palate, rounded and broader in the mouth than many. Deep, almost savoury but still cool and fresh. (JH) 14.5%
Drink 2018-2025
The 2015 Château Pape Clément Blanc is sensational stuff, and along with Domaine de Chevalier’s Blanc, a candidate for the white wine of the vintage. Made from close to equal amounts of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, with 10% Sauvignon Gris, from a 7.2-hectare section of the Pessac Vineyard, it offers a perfumed bouquet of lime, lychee, crushed rocks, and green citrus. Fabulous on the palate as well, with full-bodied richness and a ripe, sexy, concentrated style, it stays fresh and lively, and is an absolute joy to drink. You can drink bottles over the coming 4-5 years or cellar for 15+. Tasted twice and rated it 96 and 97, so I’m being conservative on the rating. 2022 - 2037
The nose has ripe fruit the start of the palate full and fleshy ripe peach with underlying pineapple. Brighter at the back the sweet fruit is underpinned by citrus but it finishes with sweet fruit depth of flavour.
Good richness and power coupled with quite a closed and controlled palate makes this a wine with some serious potential.
Grand and with complete confidence, this is a terrific wine which starts to show its layers of fruit right at the back of
the palate where they will remain until they are ushered forwards in a few years.
The 2015 Pape Clement Blanc is a blend of 50% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Semillon and 10% Sauvignon Gris picked between 12 and 15 September at 29.5 hl/ha. Around 15% of the production was aged on egg-shaped concrete tanks. The nose is actually more introverted than the deuxième vin at the moment, but the complexity is locked in via shucked oyster shell and citrus notes. The palate is extremely well balanced with a keen line of acidity that imparts tension and freshness. This is a succinctly crafted white Bordeaux, almost understated at first, but it is only when it departs down the throat that its quality become apparent. Like the aforementioned deuxième vin, this comes highly recommended.
So dense and powerful. Layered and chewy. Phenolic. Full body, dried apple and pear. Pineapple too. Goes on for minutes.
The 2015 Pape Clement Blanc is blended of 50% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Sémillon and 10% Sauvignon Gris, fermented in 55% new and 45% one-year-old oak barrels. It aged for 16 months in barrels, with the entire time spent on the fine lees. It has quite a closed, reticent nose featuring ripe peaches, musk perfume and struck flint notes with a suggestion of lemon curd and honeycomb plus a touch of coriander seed. Medium-bodied with a crisp backbone, the intense citrus and stone fruit flavors trail off beautifully into a lingering honeyed finish. 2020 - 2035