Ch. Pape Clement
Cru Classe de Graves
Pessac-Leognan
1998

The producer

Claiming to be the oldest functioning estate in Bordeaux – from 1252 - Pape Clement takes its name from Bernard de Groth who ascended to the papacy as Clement V in 1305. He donated the estate to the church – the Archdiocese of Bordeaux - who ran it until the French Revolution. The estate was, in 1939, acquired by the Montagne family, who still own it today.

Pape-Clement has Cru Classe de Graves status for the red wines only and the 32 hectares of vineyards are planted with 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, and small amounts of the white grape varieties Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle – which are used to produce the estate’s white wine.

Immense care goes into the winemaking here from ploughing the vineyards with oxen to de-stemming by hand. The Pape-Clement red offered a rich and powerful style of red wine for decades but in recent years there has been an increase in elegance.

The white Pape-Clement – the only white Bordeaux to thus far be awarded 100 points by Robert Parker (for the 2009 vintage) – has a wonderfully rich concentration with bold and exotic fruit aromas, while being balanced by toasty spice and a refreshing linear core, both immediately enjoyable and with a long ageing potential.

The wine

Pape Clement’s Grand Vin rouge is fermented parcel by parcel in wooden vats, and then followed by malolactic and ageing in oak barrels over 18-22 months, with up to 70% new oak, although varying sizes of barrels are used to reduce the overall effect of the wood. The blend is usually around 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40 Merlot, with the remainder Cabernet Franc. For many years Pape Clement offered a rich and powerful, tannic, style of wine, but in recent years there has been an increase in freshness and elegance.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.