2000 Château Clos de Sarpe- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (1/4/2019)
Decanted for 45 minutes. Opaque dark garnet-purple. Fully-charged, billowing nose of hyacinth, red currant, cedar, meaty tones, smoke, graphite, and rock. Dense, concentrated layers of currant, red plum, blackberry, schist, mocha, and beef blood planted on the palate like an edifice. Firm, structured tannin and fresh young acidity, leading to a ringing finish of pure dark berry, coiled dense earth, and grip. This is a monumental wine. Score is conservative, reflecting its young age. (94 pts.)
Thanks very much for the note, Doug. I am pretty sure I have one of these buried someplace. Based on the note, I won’t go looking for it; the tides will eventually bring it to the surface.
Thanks for your replies. This wine showed very young but with so much vitality! It was a good snapshot. No harm in trying one now, particularly if you have a bunch, but as you both have implied this wine will evolve for a long time. Years to decades probably.
I tried the 2005 in 2017. Maybe not a good time to drink it as it was a disjointed battle between gobs of rich sweet fruit and massive oaky tannins. The remaining bottles might have shown better in another 10 years but I’ll never know. They didn’t make the cut on our cellar downsizing.
I have a few bottles of the 05 somewhere but I imagine they will need 5-10 years minimum to be approachable, based on the showing of the 2000. That is a long time to wait!
Doug
Based on a small sample size that I’ve had (2 vintages, single bottle each), I agree generally with Parker’s notes of this wine. I think it is sort of unique within Bdx, big extraction but not necessarily over ripe. I have 05, 10, and 11 in the cellar. 05 will be sampled in 2020. Regards.
I did some reading on this producer and found an article by Lisa P-B highlighting the vibrant acidity found in Clos de Sarpe wines. I noticed it myself on this showing and it certainly provided balance and energy to the dense, powerful palate. I’ll post on the 05 perhaps in 2025 or so (but look forward to your TN).