Château l’Église-Clinet 2017

A blend of 90% Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc, the deep garnet-purple colored 2017 L’Eglise Clinet opens with crème de cassis, black forest cake and preserved plums notes with suggestions of underbrush, lilacs and star anise plus an invigorating spark of Bing cherries. Medium to full-bodied and built like a brick house with very firm, ripe tannins and very refreshing acidity supporting the tightly wound muscular fruit, it finishes with epic persistence and bags of energy. This will be extremely long lived! Score – 96-98+. (Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW, robertparker.com)