2022 Climens
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Tasting notes
The 2022 is another Sauternes with a faint petrolly nose, though it lacks depth and botrytis. The palate is just very strange: two bottles tasted, not corked, but somehow stripped of Sauternes viscosity and flavour. This is very vexing, not least after the wonderful bottle tasted 12 months ago. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2022 Climens shows better now than at the Southwold tasting. There are fewer of those petrol scents noted just a few weeks back and more purity with touches of yellow flowers, lemon curd and saffron aromas delivered with fine delineation. The palate is well balanced with a smooth texture and notes of dried honey, vanilla pod and a hint of nougat. Its richness is countered by a silver thread of acidity. This is much more like it! What a superb Climens.
The 2022 Climens has a fragrant bouquet that offers peach skin, apricot and light petrol scents on the nose, though it will need a few years to really cohere. The palate is well balanced with a viscous entry, very good weight and depth. It's almost oily toward the finish. I am not convinced that it is the most complex Climens in recent years and I have drunk practically all of them on multiple occasions, though it certainly has impressive length.
About the producer
Château Climens is one of Sauternes-Barsac’s leading producers of sweet wine. Classified as a Premier Cru or First Growth in 1855 it sits alongside just 10 other Premier Cru estates in Sauternes, only bettered by Ch. d’Yquem, which was granted its own elite classification of Premier Cru Supérieur.