Chateau Clinet 2017

When Ronan Laborde inherited stewardship of Clinet in 2004, one of his most deliberate acts was retaining Cabernet Sauvignon — a pre-1956-frost survivor — in a Pomerol landscape that had largely abandoned it. That decision is the structural spine of every bottle. Clinet sits at the highest point of the Pomerol plateau (35 m elevation), its 21 parcels rooted in a mosaic of Günz gravel over deep clay with iron-rich crasse de fer subsoil: the gravel drains and concentrates, the iron clay retains moisture and imparts a graphite-mineral precision that separates Clinet from the purely plush Merlot register of its neighbours. Since 2014, 17 double-walled stainless vats (15–45 hl) plus one concrete vat allow strict plot-by-plot fermentation; grapes arrive by gravity via cone-shaped vessels. Maceration runs 28–30 days, malolactic fermentation completes in barrel, and the wine ages 16–22 months in approximately 75–80% new French oak, with press wine held separately and incorporated only if additional structure is warranted. Bottled neither fined nor filtered, preserving the mineral imprint of the terroir intact. The 2017 vintage — absent from the estate's own benchmark notes — represents a leaner, more tensile expression of Clinet's iron-clay core, where the Cabernet Sauvignon component (12–20% depending on selection) sharpens the mid-palate and extends the finish. Drink from 2025 through 2038+.