chateau pape clement cru classe pessac leognan

Château Pape Clément

Château Pape Clément, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan, 2020

Name: Château Pape Clément, Cru Classé, Pessac Léognan
Brand: Château Pape Clément
Price: 482.42 GBP

95/100

Inside Bordeaux

94/100

The Wine Independent

95/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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2020
3x1.5L
DP
£482.42

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

This was our first impression of the 2020 vintage, and it had us eager to taste more. Pape Clement can have a tendency to prioritise scale over definition, however, Bernard Magrez and his team have found a perfect pitch this year. The bouquet is vivid with notes of violets, cedar, coal, dark brooding cassis and just a touch of menthol. The palate is broad and elemental yet there is a brightness and charm to the fruit; it’s pure, fragrant and packed with layers of mouth-coating bright dark berries. What makes this so engaging if the precision of fruit, not something we always associate with Pape Clement, and the profile of the tannins. If feels like the extractions have been spot on, embracing the character of the vintage, without any excess. One’s palate is left lifted with tantalising flavours of griotte, pure cassis and graphite.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

94/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Pape Clement is composed of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, and 1% Cabernet Franc. It is wearing quite a lot of oak on the nose at this stage, giving way to a powerful core of baked plums and blackcurrant cordial notes, plus wafts of Indian spices and crushed rocks. The medium to full-bodied palate is laden with lively black fruits and a firm, grainy texture, finishing long and earthy.

drinking window 2025 - 2045

date of review 03/2023

95/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Muscular tannins that have grip and staying power, exuberant while staying on the right side of the line, giving punch and definition without drowning the fruit. Cassis, liqourice, slate, crayon, crushed rocks, very much on style for Pape Clement and an excellent wine with staying power. Harvest started September 10. Heavy bottle. 60% new oak.

drinking window 2027 - 2048

date of review 02/2023

95/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2020 Pape Clément Rouge has an incredibly intense bouquet with multi-layered blackberry and bilberry fruit, cedar and black olive compote aromas. Hints of vanilla pod and black truffle emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with firm and quite assertive tannins that frame a huge weight of fruit (more than Domaine de Chevalier or Malartic-Lagravière tasted alongside). It's not a subtle Pessac-Léognan for sure, but there is adequate freshness and a sense of mineralité and tension on the finish. It will require at least a decade in bottle but long-term, this will be magnificent.

drinking window 2030 - 2065

date of review 02/2023

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14.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.