2000 Château Pape Clément- France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (7/28/2022)
Wow, just a mindblowing example of Graves/Pessac. Deeply smoky with coffee, cherry, leather and tobacco. The palate sings with acid and energy, a great 2000, powerful and deep but still so intensely classic. The aromatics are A++++. This is still young but starting to show the texture and secondary notes of pure joy. The finish is still dusty and faintly tannic.
This was my first bottle of 2x6 OWC purchased on release, and I don’t want to be in too much of a hurry. This was so tasty though, I feel like I should have a few more bottles sooner rather than later to enjoy this phase of the wine, still youthful and ebullient, but starting to become so deliciously secondary. (96 pts.)
I have a note from 9 years ago on the 2001–I enjoyed it as well but not quite as much. I threw some pretty solid points at that one too. The 2000 is really stellar, just textbook Graves. Oh that nose on that 2000!
2001 Château Pape Clément- France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan (8/11/2013)
Is 2001 a wonderful vintage or what? Little respect on release and yet nearly always drinkable. Pape Clement is just stunning. Still largely primary with loads of juicy, red fruit. However there is some lovely tobacco and chicory emerging that just scream of Graves. Wonderful minerality and balance, quite supple and enjoyable. Delicious! (93 pts.)
We had a small vertical of Pape Clement in a Zoom tasting in Jan. 2021 with the 1970, 1990, 1996 and 2000. I wanted to see how the Magrez wine compared to the others.
The 1970 was good but not as good as a stellar bottle I had the year before (both purchased in the past few years with little hard info about provenance, though both bottles looked to be in good condition).
Other bottles were mine, purchased EP. The 1990 was the star of the bunch but both 1996 and 2000 were very good. We could see some style difference in the 2000 with a bit more oak and smoke, but it didn’t seem out of place.