Château Clinet, 2025
Château Clinet, 2025
- 75cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc
- Organic
- Biodynamic
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028.
Château Clinet sits on Pomerol's famous clay-gravel plateau, where the Guinaudeau family have been crafting some of the Right Bank's most powerful wines since 1999. This is Merlot-driven Pomerol with serious muscle — think dense plum and dark chocolate wrapped in firm tannins that demand patience.
What the critics say:
"Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Black berry fruit, nuances of precious wood, delicate hints of cassis, a hint of cloves. Powerful, tightly woven, some vanilla and nougat, ripe tannins, sticks well, salty touch on the finish, mineral aftertaste."
Clinet's 11 hectares sit on Pomerol's famous buttonhole of clay over iron-rich crasse de fer, the same geological formation that underpins Pétrus. This deep clay retains moisture during dry spells whilst the iron oxide provides natural drainage, creating ideal conditions for Merlot. The slight elevation and southern exposure maximise ripening potential, whilst the clay's heat retention extends the growing season. This terroir produces wines with remarkable concentration yet maintains the silky tannin structure that makes Pomerol so distinctive.
Pomerol remains Bordeaux's most enigmatic appellation, covering just 800 hectares on the Right Bank with no official classification yet commanding some of the region's highest prices. The clay-dominant soils favour Merlot over Cabernet Sauvignon, creating wines that are more immediately appealing than their Médoc counterparts. Unlike Saint-Émilion next door, Pomerol eschews grand château architecture for modest farmhouses, letting the wines speak for themselves. The appellation's small size and fragmented ownership mean most properties produce tiny quantities, making genuine Pomerol increasingly rare.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
