Wine Advisor
La Clotte 2019
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
From a small, four-hectare vineyard that the Vauthier family acquired in 2014, the 2019 La Clotte offers up inviting aromas of wild blueberries, licorice, coniferous forest floor and sweet spices. Medium to full-bodied, bright and concentrated, it's tightly wound, with lively acids and chalky tannins. This is a promising effort from an estate in the ascendant.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2019 La Clotte opens with strong Cabernet notes of mocha, dried herbs, menthol, licorice and crushed leaves. Savory and potent, with terrific depth, La Clotte is shaping up to be a jewel of a wine. It doesn’t quite offer the immediacy of some recent vintages, but this is the sort of wine that blossoms only with a number of years in the cellar.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 La Clotte has a perfumed and more floral nose than its peers, very well integrated oak, though it feels a bit corked. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, very pure black fruit laced with cedar, but maybe a touch of TCA denudes it freshness on the finish. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 La Clotte was picked from September 27 to October 7. It has a complex bouquet of detailed red berry fruit, wild hedgerow, crushed stone and wilted rose petal aromas, engaging and (for the vintage) understated. The palate is medium-bodied, ripe and beautifully poised, with pliant tannins and a judicious touch of spice. This builds wonderfully in the mouth and feels elegant and refined, almost Burgundian on the finish. Wonderful.
About the Producer
Located in the Saint-Emilion appellation of Bordeaux, France, Chateau La Clotte sits on one of the oldest vineyards on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. The vineyard covers 4 hectares and is planted to Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, mainly on clay and limestone soils. The vines are old, with an average age of almost 50 years, and planted at a density of 6,500 vines per hectare. During the ripening stage, the winery conducts regular experimental analyses in order to determine the final harvesting time. For the winemaking, the grapes are picked by hand, macerated at low temperatures and fermented in stainless steel tanks equipped with temperature control facilities. During this period, daily drenching, cap pressing and tank decanting and back-mixing are carried out to enhance the contact between the juice and the skins in order to extract more pigments and tannins. After fermentation, the wine is aged in 50% new French oak barrels, depending on the quality of the grapes, usually around 15 months. The wine produced by Château La Clotte is called Chateau La Clotte, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe, France. The wines are of excellent quality, reasonably priced, rich in minerality, rich and full-bodied, and loved by the elite of the wine industry. Recent vintages of Château Claret have won praise from several wine critics and wine review magazines, including Robert Parker Points, James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast, for their excellent quality, including a 95+ score for the 2015 vintage. with a score of 95+.
