UK £
EU €
HK $
US $Appellations
Bordeaux 2017: Clinet, Domaine de Chevalier & Duhart
17th May 2018.
MORNING:
We begin the day with the "undeniably elegant and well balanced" Clinet.
Made with great attention to detail, Clinet has become more prominent in recent years. A huge success in 2015 and 2016 but still at the affordable end for a top Pomerol (situated on the plateau, just across the road from Eglise Clinet). It is released at £690 per cs (a euro release price over 20% down from last year).
The popular Pessac Leognan Domaine de Chevalier continues its excellent run of form (93-95+ WA, 92-94 NM). Jeb Dunnuck (94-97) feels the 2017 red "is going to be up with the crème de la crème of the vintage" and scores it higher than any other in the appellation including Haut Brion! Released at £518 per cs, it is certainly considerably cheaper. Prices for Domaine de Chevalier remain reasonable (especially against its peers Smith Haut Lafitte and Pape Clement).
2017 is an excellent vintage for the whites and Domaine de Chevalier Blanc is amongst the very best, released today at £827 per cs. 95-97+ Jeb Dunnuck "It should match, if not exceed, the 2015. Gorgeous notes of lemon curd, mint, citrus, white peach, and salty minerality".
AFTERNOON:
The afternoon begins in Pauillac with the first release from the Lafite stable, the "brilliantly elegant and suave" Duhart Milon at £570 per cs (94 Dec). The price puts it on a par with comparable physical vintages which are becoming harder and harder to find in the market.
Pomerol
£690 per 12 btl / £345 per 6
92-94 Neal Martin "a perfumed bouquet with mainly red berry fruit, top notes of loam and a touch of violet. It is certainly well defined. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, well delineated, and saline in the mouth... it is undeniably elegant and well balanced with a hint of cured meat cropping up on the aftertaste. Classic Clinet!"
93-95 Jeb Dunnuck "Château Clinet is a beautiful, dense, concentrated wine that has terrific notes of blueberries, spring flowers, and chocolaty oak. It’s very much in the style of the vintage with its cool, perfumed aromatics and sensational purity of fruit, yet it also has richness and weight. It’s a brilliant Pomerol."
Graves
£518 per 12 btl / £259 per 6
93-95+ Wine Advocate "opens with a cedary waft giving way to a good core of crushed black currants, blackberries and mulberries with suggestions of black truffles, tilled soil and black olives plus a hint of smoked meats. Medium-bodied with a good, solid frame of ripe, fine-grained tannins and oodles of freshness, it is elegantly fruited yet well sustained on the mid-palate and long finish."
94-97 Jeb Dunnuck "the 2017 Domaine de Chevalier is going to be up with the crème de la crème of the vintage... an incredibly classic bouquet of crème de cassis, crushed rock, pipe tobacco, smoked earth, and leafy herbs. Similar in style to the 2008, yet with more generosity and charm, it's medium to full-bodied, silky, and elegant, with ripe tannin."
£827 per 12 btl / £414 per 6
93-95 Neal Martin "very attractive, estuarine influenced bouquet with scents of cockle and oyster shell infusing the vivacious citrus fruit. This opens up very nicely with aeration in the glass. The palate is very well balanced with a fine bead of acidity. It feels quite saline and spicy in the mouth with a rather intense citric finish that is very persistent, the aftertaste again, quite saline."
96-97 James Suckling "This is a dense and beautiful DC with serious density and a fabulous layering of fruit. Phenolics are there but they melt into the wine already. Love the acid/fruit balance. A solid and serious white."
Pauillac
£570 per 12 btl / £285 per 6
94 Decanter "A brilliantly elegant, suave Duhart, one of the successes of the appellation for me. This is a classically structured Duhart, a wine that is not overly exuberant but that has a sense of direction and balance, and is well held together. There's a very attractive quality to the tannins, joined by dark bilberry fruits that gain weight through the palate."
89-92 Antonio Galloni "The 2017 Duhart Milon is deep, luscious and fruity, with lovely mid-palate depth and pliancy. Soft, silky tannins wrap around a core of dark red and blackish fruit. ... another impressive wine in a portfolio from Lafite that is especially strong this year."
Please enquire, order online or contact us at sales@albanyvintners.com.
En Primeur wines, offered lying In Bond in the UK Summer 2020.
Wines may be ordered in special sizes for a small supplement (6x150cl Magnums, 1x300cl double magnum, 3x300cl double magnums, 1x600cl imperial) . Please enquire for details.
Sweet wines may be ordered in half-bottles (case of 12x37.5 or case of 24x37.5) at no extra cost.