94-95pts James Suckling
Pape made a very finely crafted and elegant wine this vintage, with plenty of berry, spice and earth character. Medium-bodied. Savory and lightly spicy on the finish. Creamy tannins.
91-94pts Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pape Clément exhibits notions of sweet berries and cherries mingled with rich aromas of espresso roast, black truffles, toasty new oak and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, deep and quite extracted in style, it's a rich, fleshy wine that gained in integration and harmony over the the three weeks I spent in Bordeaux. Tasted three times.
92-94pts Vinous
The 2021 Pape Clément is a tightly wound, reticent wine. A core of bright red-toned fruit lies behind a wall of tannin and acids that is pretty impenetrable at this stage. I imagine the 2021 will come around at some point, but it is pretty austere in the early going. Tasted four times.
94pts Decanter
Concentrated and intense nose with subtle violet and perfume flecks. Quite chewy and grippy on the palate, this has more of a chunky frame than many others with mouthwatering acidity, plush tannins and a good dose of strawberry, blackcurrant and black cherry fruit edged by eucalyptus and liquorice. You get the liveliness but also the density and the gentle power and I love the minerality at the end, a touch of salinity as well as cedar, clove, bitter dark chocolate and slate. You've got a lot going on with this wine and it's one of the more confident wines from the Bernard Magrez stable in the vintage. This could be very excellent.
91-93pts Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Château Pape Clément, which was tasted on numerous occasions, is certainly one of the more mid-weight versions of this wine that I can remember. Giving up attractive cassis and currant fruits as well as tobacco and a kiss of graphite, it's medium-bodied, mid-weight, charming, and forward. I think it will be an outstanding wine, but we're a solid step off the top wines in the vintage.
