Chateau Clerc Milon 2014
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This property continues its upward trend. It is a solid wine, packed with great ripe fruit. Old vines give extra concentration and depth of flavor. The wine has great potential, with both its tannins and rich fruit playing strongly. Drink from 2023.
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James Suckling
Extremely floral and fresh with currants, light chocolate and orange peel. Red clay, too. Full-bodied, firm, silky and long with a flavorful finish. Salty undertone. Stones. Really serious. Better in 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Cantenac Brown has a backward nose at first, a mixture of red and black fruit, cedar and tobacco, an attractive pastille-like scent emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with a little more extraction than its peers. It feels fleshy and pure, notes of raspberry coulis, confit fruit, orange rind and tobacco towards the well-structured, delicately spiced finish. It makes you want to come back for another sip—always a good sign! A bottle tasted six months later in February 2017 demonstrated a little more cohesion and finesse, suggesting that this Margaux will meliorate with bottle age. One to watch out for.
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Wine Spectator
This is defined by a large, rounded core of enticing cassis, cherry preserves and plum compote, while light anise and briar notes hang in the background. Offers an ample spine for balance, but this feels like it may be approachable sooner because of that ball of fruit. Best from 2018 through 2028.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
For decades, Château Clerc Milon has been one of my favorite Pauillacs. I have enjoyed its balance between the Old and New Worlds—never over-the-top in being too international and always showing its Pauillac roots. This vintage shows bright red and black fruit, a touch of sweet oak, and a little bit of dust. (Tasted: January 27, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
More briary, robust and structured than its stable mate d'Armailhac. Impressive vineyard depth -?? a serious Pauillac on top form.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Clerc Milon lags behind its 2015 counterpart but is a solid, concentrated, charming 2014 that’s certainly an outstanding wine, and then some. Red and black currants, lots of earthy minerality, tobacco, and cigar notes all give way to a medium to full-bodied, concentrated, ripe, textured 2014 that has good acidity, fine tannin, and loads of charm. It’s approachable today but will be better with 3-4 years of bottle age and shine for two decades or more.
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An 1855 Classified Growth, Château Clerc Milon is in a unique location in Pauillac. Bordering two Classified First Growths, it has 41 hectares (100 acres) of vines in a single sweep, mostly on the beautiful Mousset outcrop overlooking the Gironde. The estuary and its sea breezes moderate temperature variations while the geological formation encourages natural drainage and optimises the vines’ exposure to the sun. The soil comprises deep, sandy gravel over a clay-limestone base which crops out in the eastern part of the estate. The vineyard’s slopes and proximity to the Gironde estuary create a unique topography and microclimate.
The vineyard, mostly comprising plots first planted in the early 20th century, offers a singular genetic heritage and rich biodiversity. It has five grape varieties typical of the region: Cabernet Sauvignon (51.5%), Merlot (37%), Cabernet Franc (8%), Petit Verdot (2%) and Carmenere (1.5%), including a parcel planted in 1947.
Pastourelle de Clerc Milon is the estate’s second wine, in which Merlot predominates.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) acquired Château Clerc Milon in 1970. His values and know-how are now embodied in the third generation of the family, represented by Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, who continue to develop Château Clerc Milon with the same enthusiasm and quest for modernity. Thanks to the work carried out over the last 50 years and more, and with the help of a dedicated team endowed with cutting-edge technical facilities, Château Clerc Milon is more than ever a benchmark for excellence in the Médoc.
Château Clerc Milon is a beautifully balanced, elegant and precise wine with considerable ageing potential.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.