2012 Château Pape Clément
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Tasting notes
The 2012 Pape Clément has quite a high-toned bouquet with liquorice-infused red fruit, violet and camphor emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy ripe tannins, high-toned and slightly volatile towards the heady finish. This needs calming down. After tasting blind at Southwold, a second bottle at the Bordeaux Index did nothing to alter my view about this Pessac-Léognan.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
Tertiary notes of leather, earth, truffle, blueberry and raspberry fruits. Enjoyable, but more evolved than the last time I tasted this vintage ex-cellar. It's an enjoyable wine, soft and sappy, and easy to recommend. 100% new oak, Michel Rolland consultant.
Tasted blind. Dark crimson. Sweet and a little too sweet honestly. More refreshment, please! But no lack of concentration… (JR)
This was considered one of the wines of the vintage at the time, and it really is singing right now at nine years old. Plenty of grilled cedar and plump blackberry, black cherry and blackcurrant fruits, feels open and enticing, no need to wait, edged with tobacco and smoked earth. Tasted the same week as this vertical, but in a separate lineup against other 2012 Pessac-Léognans. This comes highly recommended. 100% new oak, Michel Rolland consultant.
About the producer
Among the oldest estates in Bordeaux, Ch. Pape Clément has been guided into the modern era by Bernard Magrez, who has managed the estate since 1985. It makes some of the best reds in the region.