2023, Château Pape Clément Rouge, PESSAC-LÉOGNAN, Grand Cru Classé des Graves

Last Year EP $136.00-

Owner Bernard Magrez has made serious investments here since the late 1990s and recent vintages have been outstanding thanks to extremely low yields, labour-intensive sorting of grapes and modern wine-making techniques.
2023 is 50% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot

The 2023 Pape Clément is one of the most exciting wines I have tasted here in a long time, maybe ever. Intensely aromatic and layered, the 2023 is simply stunning. Dried flowers, mint, liquorice, mocha, cedar and tobacco soar out of the glass. The purity of the flavours is simply mind-blowing. Plum, pomegranate, blood orange and spice build in the glass, adding notable textural richness and resonance. This is the first vintage vinified with indigenous yeasts. Aging takes place in a combination of concrete tanks, ceramic eggs, 400-litre barrels and 225-litre barriques. What a wine!
95-97 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.

This is really classy with length and polish that shine brightly. Also, you see blackberry, bark, currant and mushroom character. Full-bodied with wonderfully polished tannins and a seamless finish.
97-98 James Suckling.

The 2023 Pape Clément is the first vintage fully employing crème de levures, using native yeasts in the vineyard to start the fermentation and improve balance, together with two native yeasts regularly employed since 2012 (to maintain some consistency). The 2023 is cut from a very different cloth compared to recent vintages. It’s much more classic in style, almost reserved, with tightly wound black fruit mixed with briar and light gravelly scents. The palate is medium-bodied with a light entry, just a pinch of spice and moderate depth. Very fine. I like this new direction. This will be interesting to revisit after bottling.
93-95 Neal Martin.

Inky depths to the plum colour; as is often the case with Pape Clement even under the new regime of the past few vintages where new oak has been lowered. Delivers an exuberant, confident estate signature, supple texture, roasted black cherry and cherry pit, cocoa bean, espresso, a cushion of air helps give a lift on the finish to what is a fairly highly charged architecture.
93 Jane Anson.