Andrew Jefford | Deep, dark black-red to purple-scarlet at the rim. Fresh and vibrant, with lovely pungent cut and edge to the blackcurrant and black plum fruits. The days of overripe Clinet are well and truly buried with this lively, athletically scented wine, full of sweet poise. On the palate, there is nothing shy about the tannins here, which are dense and grippy and almost too much for the fruit; indeed, the fruits are a little less limpid and prominent than the aromas suggested. Not overripe, but still chunky! However, that is doubtless how the fans of Clinet like it, and indeed I’d have to say that I’d love to sit down to a bottle of this pure, dramatic yet still amply structured Pomerol on a cold winter’s evening. Perhaps just a little stalky in the final analysis. | 91

Michael Schuster | Closed on the nose; rich, fairly full, fresh, and firmly tannic; sweetly, crisply cassis ripe in fruit, long and sappy and refined to taste within the firm tannin texture, long and fruit-fragrant to finish; fine, generous, long-term Client. 2030–45+. | 92