2023 Pastourelle de Clerc Milon
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Tasting notes
Ripe black cherry and chocolaty fruits emerge from the 2023 Pastourelle De Clerc Milon, a Merlot-dominated second wine that's fleshy, sexy, and loaded with pleasure. Medium to full-bodied, it has chocolate, tobacco, and leafy herb-driven nuances, with soft tannins and outstanding length on the palate. Drink this pleasure bomb over the coming 15-20 years. Drink 2026-2045.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
More reviews and scores
The 2023 Pastourelle de Clerc Milon is an absolute delight. Soft contours wrap around a core of plum, black cherry, new leather, licorice, lavender, spice, incense and gravel. The purity of the flavors is just remarkable. This fruity, supple Merlot-driven Pauillac is alluring. It's a gorgeous second wine that does everything a wine in its peer group should do, namely: provide tons of immediacy and pure drinking pleasure. I loved it.
The 2023 Pastorelle de Clerc Milon has quite a potent pencil box and blackberry-scented bouquet. It just misses a bit of finesse. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fine acidity, clean black fruit, with a little more depth on the finish than I originally envisaged from barrel. Give this a year in bottle.
Softened and opened over ageing, still delivering high spice, damson, and black cherry that comes from that relatively high Merlot, gives a generous character, with a ton of cocoa bean and espresso. Retains Pauillac tannins and grip but an earlier-drinking slice of the appellation. No new barrels for ageing, harvest September 7 to 29, a touch of Carmanère in the blend both in this and the main estate wine.
About the producer
Ch. Clerc Milon was purchased by Baron Philippe Rothschild in 1970. Today the 41-hectare vineyard, sandwiched between First Growths Ch. Lafite Rothschild and Ch. Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac, is one of Bordeaux’s most impressive Fifth Growths