Wine Advisor
Climens 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Pale lemon-gold colored, the 2010 Climens reveals a seriously intense nose of mango pudding, warm pineapples and pink grapefruit with hints of exotic spices, toasted almonds and brioche plus a waft of honeycomb. Powerfully flavored and packed with layers of tropical fruits, spices and earthy notes, it finishes epically long and honeyed.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Experience has told me that Chateau Climens 2010 never really gets into its stride during its first decade in bottle and the 2010 is included. It seems a little muffled at first, especially in the context of some very delineated aromatics for this Sauternes vintage, but it gains clarity with aeration. The palate is well-balanced with an unctuous entry. The acidity seems lower than its peers but this really benefits from time in the glass, becoming ever more pixelated and poised. While it pales against the 2009, this constitutes a follow-up worth seeking out rather than squirrelling away. Drink 2018-2035+.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Berenice Lurton and her team managed to pick the crop just hours before rains fell on October 23. Tasting through every one of their lots in 2010, there was a theme of tautness, racy acidity and spice. Focusing upon two batches representing about 14% of the harvest, there was patently exquisite balance and a sense of concentrated but efficient power, counterbalanced by immense purity and effervescence. Their problem will be knowing exactly which lots to deselect!
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Climens is a mercurial wine - Bérénice Lurton commenting that is keeps changing personality in recent months. Here, it has closed in a little, with tightly wound honeyed fruit, fresh pear and a touch of candle wax. The palate is viscous on the entry, extremely well balanced, tensile in the mouth, but you can tell that it is keeping 90% of its secrets to itself. If cuts away swiftly on the finish as if to say: that's your lot. In other words, this represents a long-term Climens that will need considerable cellaring. Tasted April 2016.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Pale to medium lemon-gold colored, the 2010 Climens offers a lifted, floral nose of orange blossoms and jasmine over a core of lime cordial, grapefruit oil and dried apricots plus hints of lemon preserves and ginger nut. Very sweet, hedonic and fantastically seductive in the mouth, the concentration is beautifully offset by lovely freshness, finishing with fantastic length.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Climens has just been a bit variable bottle-to-bottle. This was a transitional Climens as biodynamics was being introduced. Again, I find this a little subdued at the moment, perhaps going through a sulky adolescent stage. The palate is well balanced with a menthol-tinged entry, fine depth and acidity, more expressive towards the finish with a touch of lemongrass on the aftertaste. C'mon...show me what you can do... Tasted at the Climens vertical at the château in April 2022.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Climens feels a little muted on the nose and lacks the vigor and complexity of the 2010 Coutet that happened to be tasted blind alongside. The palate is nicely balanced but it feels very muted at the moment and needs more tension on the finish. There is a sense of elegance here, but it needs more substance. Climens often goes through a subdued phase in its youth that can be a disadvantage in blind tasting - I am confident that it will open up in future years. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Climens is a little different to several previous encounters with dried honey, tangerine, melted candle wax and a touch of barley sugar, perhaps even more delineated than previous bottles. It almost shimmers with energy. The palate is medium-bodied with viscous honeyed fruit, very harmonious although you can tell that this is just a young pup. Give it another decade in bottle. Courtesy of a bottle proffered by Bill Blatch at Trinity restaurant in London.
About the Producer
Château Climens is a wine producer located in the Sauternes village of Barsac on the left bank of the Gironde river, south of Bordeaux. It was classified as a first growth in the 1885 Classification of Sauternes and Barsac alongside other châteaux such as Guiraud and Suduiraut. Climens is one of only a handful of châteaux in Bordeaux that produces its wines from only one grape: Semillon. The wine is characterized by fresh citrus notes, white flowers and spice, which becomes more honeyed and concentrated with age. Semillon thrives on the limestone-rich soils in the vineyards. Botrytis develops on the grapes because of the misty mornings, humidity and warmer afternoons that are typical during the months before harvest. If the grapes are not of the highest quality, or if botrytis has not properly formed, owner Bérénice Lurton and her team will not produce their top wine, the grand vin Château Climens. They have been bold enough in the past to declassify an entire harvest of fruit – either selling the grapes off to other producers rather than bottling as their own or releasing wines under secondary labels. The grapes are harvested and brought into the winery, plot by plot, where they are gently pressed before fermentation in oak barrels. Maturation takes place in French oak barrels on lees for about 20 months. Wines from the best vintages can last decades – a recent tasting of the 1921 vintage revealed a rich, balanced and zesty wine. Château Climens has been owned by the Lurton family since the 1970s (when it was acquired by Lucien Lurton), and in 1992 the estate came under the control of Bérénice Lurton (his daughter). In 2010, Climens began to practice biodynamic winemaking and viticulture, and the 2014 vintage was the first to be entirely certified as biodynamic. Chemical sprays were replaced with natural preparations and plant infusions, from flowers such as chamomile and juniper which are grown on the estate and dried in the attics above the chais.
