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La Petite Eglise (2nd label Eglise Clinet) 2017

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > Pomerol
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot/Cabernet Franc

Denis Durantou's "second wine" is a serious Pomerol in its own right, but at a fraction of the price of Eglise Clinet. Usually the best value wine in Pomerol. The 100% Merlot fruit is harvested on sandier soils and elevaged in 50% new oak barrels in the cellars of Eglise Clinet.

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Château L'Église-Clinet

Label

Tasting Notes

Tasted blind. Deep ruby colour. Plums, fresh mint and bay leaf on the nose – complex and seductive. The palate has a silky entry, with rounded fruit set against leathery spice and tobacco. Crunchy, mouth-coating tannins provide ample structure without dominating the fruit. Tones of dried cherries and liquorice on the finish. Long, should improve.
Drink 2024 – 2038

16.5+
Thomas Parker MW, JancisRobinson.com, October 2021

White pepper and dried flowers with blackberries, orange peel and a smoky undertone. Medium to full body. Chili, spice and blue fruit on the palate. Hint of lemon rind. Very long finish. Needs at least three or four years to come around. Drink after 2023.

94
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (June 2019), January 2020

La Petite Eglise 2017 is 100% Merlot and has a deep garnet-purple color. It needs a lot of swirling to unfurl notions of baked black plums, warm blackberries, and licorice, plus suggestions of wild sage, chargrill, and crushed stones. Medium-bodied, the palate has great poise, with delicate black fruits and earthy layers supported by rounded tannins, with a refreshing finish.

92
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent, December 2022

A lighter expression of Durantou's work, partly because this is a sandier soil planted to 100% Merlot, and partly due to the vintage. It has a real freshness and florality and will make for great drinking over the next few years. It's worth knowing that Durantou is about to pull up these vines (they were planted in the 1980s), so this will be the last vintage before production goes right down for the next five years or so. Thankfully there was a good yield of 41hl/ha. 50% new oak, picked 12-22 September.
Drinking Window 2023 - 2033

89
Jane Anson, Decanter.com, April 2018

Dark purplish crimson with black core. Elderberry fruit. Fragrant. A little wild in aroma, wild fruits. Incredibly silky, juicy and supple. Lovely and already nearly approachable. Mouth-wateirng and moreish.
Drink 2022-2030

16.5
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com, April 2018

Bright fruits the nose has a mix of red and black fruits the start of the palate fleshy generous with ripe fruit. Fresher at the back slightly herbal with aromatic spice on the finish. 2023-33

87/89
Derek Smedley MW, DerekSmedleyMW.co.uk, April 2018

This is a very calm and controlled Petite Eglise with some fresh tones and also a less dense and dark outlook than in recent vintages. There is a depth but control here which is impressive and it will need a good five years to balance out the tannins. Perhaps a little atypical for this wine, this is a pure style with cadence and definition and it counterbalances many of the much richer styles made in years gone by.

17+
Matthew Jukes, Matthew Jukes' Blog, April 2018
Read more tasting notes...

An elegant second wine of L’Eglise Clinet with dark berries, spices and stones. Medium body and silky and polished tannins.

90/91
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, April 2018

Produced from a blend of 36% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Cabernet Franc, the 2017 Petit-Figeac is medium to deep garnet-purple colored. It sails out of the glass with open-knit scents of freshly crushed red and black plums, black cherries and boysenberries with touches of camphor, dark chocolate and cardamom. Medium-bodied, the palate has lovely freshness and plenty of juicy black and red fruits, framed by chewy tannins, finishing on a fragrant earth note.

Not being situated on the plateau, Chateau Figeac was badly affected by frost in 2017, with overall yields coming in at 22 hectoliters per hectare—less than half of the average. They lost a lot of Cabernet Franc, and the Merlot was also badly affected. But, the silver lining was that it was a successful year for Cabernet Sauvignon, the variety upon which, under Frédéric Faye’s management, the property has increased focus in recent years. “There is not a lot of clay here, so the terroir is not so good for Cabernet Franc,” Faye commented. “Cabernet Sauvignon excels here." From the outset after the frosts, managing director Frédéric Faye made rigorous efforts to isolate the frost-affected vines and monitor/tend to them individually. Incredibly, this equated to around 20,000 vines that needed to be managed separately. “At the beginning, the lag time for the second-generation fruit was 3.5 weeks, and by harvest, it was only 18 days,” he commented. And, of course, these were harvested separately—in many passes, as it turned out. “One plot was harvested four times!” Faye mentioned. Figeac bought five new vatting tanks to coordinate the vinification of all the separate pickings. To manage the tannins of the second-generation fruit, less extraction was used along with lower fermentation temperatures, and the vatting time was three weeks as opposed to one month for the first-generation. In the end, Faye considered the final blend with a proportion of around 10% second-generation fruit for the Merlot component to be superior to the blend with first-generation fruit alone. The effect here is barely detectable, adding just enough spice, tannin interest and intensity to give the discernible first-generation fruit a little boost.

89
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, March 2020

Composed of 52% Merlot and 48% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Le Petit Cheval comes strutting out of the glass with gregarious notions of red currant jelly, black raspberries, blackberries and dark chocolate with hints of lavender, allspice, fertile loam and potpourri. Medium-bodied and firmly textured with chewy tannins and seamless freshness, it has plenty of spice and earth layers and a long, mineral-tinged finish. 4,500 bottles are to be produced.

90/92
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (236), April 2018

The nose has a mix of red and black fruits fragrant with violets and lavender the start of the palate sweet ripe black fruits and chocolate. Quite tight in the middle firm but fine tannins spicy richness at the back with seamless length. 2024-36

88/90
Derek Smedley MW, DerekSmedleyMW.co.uk, April 2018
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.