95-96pts James Suckling
Focused and bright with plenty of fruit but oranges and minerals in the mid-palate. Really fresh with a fresh bitterness.
94-96pts Jeb Dunnuck
As to the Grand Vin 2022 Château Clerc Milon, it reminds me of the 2018 with its full-bodied, ripe, yet elegant style. Cassis, graphite, espresso roast, and lead pencil notes define the aromatics, and it has a beautiful spine of acidity, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It shows the ripe, exuberant yet structured style of the vintage beautifully. The blend is 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Carmenère, harvested between the 9th and 26th of September, with an alcohol content of 14.5%, a pH of 3.83, and an IPT of 74. The élevage here is 55% new French oak. Tasted multiple times with consistent notes.
93-95pts Wine Advocate
The 2022 Clerc Milon is beautiful, offering up aromas of cherries, raspberries and plums mingled with hints of pencil shavings and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's taut and lively, with a vibrant core of fruit framed by fine, chalky tannins. Its clay-limestone terroir lends it a distinctive signature that sets it apart from the rest of the portfolio.
95pts Decanter
Fragrant, perfumed black berries and purple flowers. Smells intense and concentrated, deep, dark and rich. Bold and characterful from the first sip, supple and generous, a lovely shot of strawberry and red cherry fruit gives the tang and immediate excitement while the tannins, stoney and cool, enter and give the frame and focus for the finish. Really well made, great drive but plush at the same time, it’s silky yet well defined and also weighty and forward. A big mouthful that is just so juicy and fun, lively, expressive, well worked and so easy. A step-up from Pastourelle. Super accessible and really enjoyable with the sweet juicy tang that I adore and stony minerality on the finish that is moreish. Immediate pleasure on offer.
95pts Jane Anson
The depths are evident in the velvety texture and colour, and it stretches out through the palate with slow confidence. Plenty of grip and supple tannins that cradle the cassis and bilberry fruit, studded with olive, cocoa bean, white pepper, slate, clear spice, intense phenolics and this is excellent quality. Caroline Artaud technical director. Old vine Carmanère no doubt helps add the spice and eucalyptus edge. 63% of production in this wine, 55% new oak, 3.83ph. 37hl/h yield.
91-93pts Vinous
The 2022 Clerc Milon is plump, juicy and vibrant, with terrific energy and tons of class. Sumptuous black cherry, gravel, licorice, menthol and spice are beautifully dialed up in this decidedly flamboyant edition of Clerc Milon.
Winemaker Notes
A wine with considerable ageing potential made in the traditional Médoc way, Château Clerc Milon is the result of a particularly successful marriage between gravel and clay-limestone terroirs and Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. Powerful, tannic, full-bodied and rich in fruit, it also has all the typical elegance of the finest Pauillac wines.
History
Chateau Clerc Milon, classified as a Fifth Growth in 1855, consists of 79 acres of vines, planted with the typical varieties of the region: 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmenère. Adjoining two Pauillac First Growths, Lafite and Mouton, the estate had become somewhat neglected when it was bought by Baron Phillipe de Rothschild.
Convinced of the wine’s potential, Baron Philippe considered that Château Clerc Milon deserved a “rightful place” alongside the family’s two other wines, Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau d'Armailhac. He acquired the estate in 1970 and embarked on a meticulous renovation of the vineyard, drawing on the remarkable skills of the technical staff at Mouton, while reconstituting the estate by gradually buying up the parcels dispersed over the years from their countless owners.
Vines were replanted by staff from Chateau Mouton Rothschild, parcels were consolidated and many technical improvements were made, including the building of a new vat room. To renew the wine’s image and identity, he successively illustrated the Château Clerc Milon label with two decorative works by 17th and 18th century German goldsmiths taken from the Museum of Wine in Art at Chateau Mouton Rothschild: a Jungfraubecher, a silver-gilt marriage cup, until the 1982 vintage, then a pair of dancers made of precious stones. These efforts are now bearing fruit and Chateau Clerc Milon has become one of the most sought-after Médoc wines, displaying a richness and depth comparable with the region's finest.
