1995 Château Clinet Pomerol Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note

Firm, stoic, classically styled Pomerol with earthy plums and dark cocoa notes. The wine is mature, but the tannins really mark the character of the wine here.

3,362 Views   Tasted May 4, 2020

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A nice wine that clearly bears the marks of the 1995 vintage, with its strictness to the tannins. There is concentration, fruit and aromatics, but the wine shows an austerity in its plummy finish that will appeal to some more than others.

At 21, the wine is starting to show its age in the color. Flowers, smoke, licorice, black cherry, mocha and minty aromatics are right where you can find them. Even with 2 hours of decanting, the tannic backbone found in the 1995 vintage remains. There is a lot of plummy fruit, coupled with a blast of dark chocolate in the finish. But this is more of a structured, masculine style of Pomerol that is not going to change its character with more age. This is going to appeal more to lovers of classic styled Bordeaux.

This bottle was quite structured, firm and masculine, with a tannic spine. You could tell there was a lot of fruit, with good ripeness, but this example was more for the mond than the soul. Looking at my notes from a few years ago, this is not headed in a good direction and at 21 years of age, that direction is not likely to change.

Not as seductive or charming as previous bottles, perhaps the toughness of the 1995 vintage is starting to show through. The wine was much more interesting on the nose than the palate. The finish displayed some hardness to the tannins and was a bit drying in the finish. Decanting for 2 hours helped, but this wine might be slowly drying out.

One of the top wines from a vintage better known for its rustic, tannic, nature. Juicy chocolate covered plums, truffles and floral aromas, round, soft textures and a long, opulent, fresh, black cherry finish are found in this wine. As it creeps closer to its 20th birthday, this has moved into the prime time drinking stage.

In a year filled with numerous hard, austere wines, 1995 Clinet is one of the top wines that overcomes the style of the vintage. With its chocoalte, floral, truffle, earth, black cherry, smoke and plum nose, the wine is pure silk and velvet, ending in a lush, sensuous, sweet, cocoa, earth and black raspberry finish. There is no hurry to drink this as it has the stuffing to age and develop for another 15-20 years. The wine was not decanted, just popped, poured and enjoyed!

This is a sexy style of Pomerol. With a bouquet of chocolate covered flowers, plum liqueur, truffle, fennel, spice and black cherries, the wine coats your palate with opulently textured black plums and black raspberry jam. Packed and stacked with layers of ripe fruit, Clinet was able to avoid the harsh style of tannins that plagued so many wines from this difficult vintage. The delicious Bordeaux could still improve, but it is drinking so well now, if you have more than a few bottles, it's time to open one and see for yourself. This is the last great Clinet of the Arcaute regime. It was a long 13 year wait until 2008, when the new owner, Ronan Laborde produced another stellar wine at this level of quality.