1980 Château Climens
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Tasting notes
The 1980 Climens has a rather strange fungal nose mixed with peppermint and wet wool. Light on the palate, this could almost be a Chenin Blanc, fading fast on the finish. Of curiosity value only. Tasted April 2009. Tasted at Château Climens.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Orangey tawny. Browner than most. Candified nose. Rather mummified. Bit of a sugary block rather than something really really interesting. Slightly drying finish. Thought to be an out-of-condition bottle because it should be elegant. Roy Richards (of Richards Walford, organiser of this Climens vertical tasting) thinks better than Yquem 1980 usually. My mark is for this particular bottle. (JR)
TA 4.5 g/l (sulphuric). Medium deep orangey gold. Highly distinctive nose of lemon linctus and tastes just like it smells. Sweet and relatively simple on the mid palate though it finishes spicy and fresh at the very end and has much more life and freshness than the 1981. (JH)
1980 is a wonderful vintage of Climens, which has produced an outstanding Barsac. An exotic bouquet of tropical fruit, pineapples, and melons is really top class. On the palate, the wine is rich, yet never heavy or cloyingly sweet, with crisp, rich, medium-bodied, lush, velvety, ripe fruity flavors. This is a superb effort from Climens, and one of the best sweet wines of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: Now-2000. Last tasted, 12/90.
About the producer
Château Climens is one of Sauternes-Barsac’s leading producers of sweet wine. Classified as a Premier Cru or First Growth in 1855 it sits alongside just 10 other Premier Cru estates in Sauternes, only bettered by Ch. d’Yquem, which was granted its own elite classification of Premier Cru Supérieur.