John Gilman: As is typical at Château Climens, the assemblage of the 2010 had not yet taken place, and we tasted through a range of barrels of the constituent components that will eventually make up the final blend. Working through them was a very nice way to see what the Sauternais were faced with in the 2010 vintage, since a sample from the first day of harvesting (presumably from mid-September) showed lovely elegance on the nose but a bit of heat on the back end from the already very ripe grapes. The trie from October 10 had quite a bit more botrytis in evidence than the first cuvée, with more opulence and also a decidedly lower impression of alcohol. A parcel of young vines collected mid-October was racy and pure and showed off lovely notes of melon, pear, pineapple and floral tones. A sample of the October 21 trie was ripe and also showed a bit of heat on the back end but with stunning depth and a superb signature of chalky soil tones. The last grapes were gathered on October 24 and produced the most powerful cuvée, but also with a bit of back-end heat in evidence. Overall, this seems likely to be a very successful example of the vintage but an atypically powerful and heady Climens, and it will be very interesting to see how this wine ages. I suspect that the finished wine will be in the range of 17/17.5