With a floral, spicy, tobacco leaf, currant and chocolate filled perfume, the wine is elegant, fresh, supple and silky. There is a beautiful sweetness to the currants, cherries and plums in the mouth. The sensation of the Merlot comes through the blend more than usual as you find a touch of dark chocolate gently coating your palate in the finish, adding length, texture and complexity. This is so good now. But it is going to be even better with 7-9 years of age. The wine blends 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, 13.3% ABV. 94-96

This is very full and layered with lots of blackcurrant and walnut and hints of spice. It’s full-bodied and chewy, yet the tannins are polished and energetic.

Tasted by Jane Anson(at Primeur week tastings in Bordeaux, 01 May 2021)

Powerful, a little austere with tight black fruits that will benefit from adding flesh over ageing, as the tannins are a little angular right now. The freshly crushed mint leaf finish is beautiful, and this is is ripped with powerful nuanced fruit, tobacco and earthy flavours, followed by waves of violet flowers. Good quality, not as exuberant as some years of Clerc Milon. First year of Caroline Artaud to oversee the entire vintage, as Jean-Philippe Danjoy has headed over to Mouton. 2% Petit Verdot completes the blend. 50% new oak. There is also 0.6% of Carmanère in the blend.

Drinking Window 2028 - 2044

The top wine 2020 Château Clerc Milon checks in as 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot and Carmenère, and it's another beauty, offering both richness and elegance. Ripe currants, cassis, damp earth, graphite, and crushed stone-like minerality define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a more focused, pure texture, plenty of expansive richness on the mid-palate, and ripe, building tannins. This beautifully layered, pure wine shows the style of the vintage nicely.

Drink Date
2025 - 2040

Reviewed by Lisa Perrotti-Brown

The 2020 Clerc Milon - a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot with just a splash of Carmenere - has a deep garnet-purple color, opening with notes of tar, unsmoked cigars, bouquet garni and graphite, giving way to a core of ripe black and red currants, boysenberries and tree bark, plus a touch of black olives. The medium-bodied palate delivers fantastic tension and impressively ripe, fine-grained tannins to support the crunchy, energetic black fruit flavors, finishing with a lively herbal lift.

(53% CS, 37% M, 8% CF, 2% PV; 13.3% ABV; 55% new)
Floral, perfumed, refined, subtly mineral nose; rich, restrained, concentrated medium-weight, with a very fresh acidity and superfine tannin—lovely balance; fine depth of sweet blackcurrant Cabernet flavor, long and close-grained—so sweet and so fresh at once—long, gently resonant, subtly gravelly in aroma, with great length across the palate and on the finish. Graceful, gently fleshy wine, linear all the time and restrained, but so complete. This will be very rewarding when mature! 2030–50+.

The 2020 Clerc Milon has a crisp, well-defined bouquet that you might suspect derives from a cooler growing season. Mainly black fruit here, along with cedar and light sea spray/estuarine scents, unfolding nicely in the glass but always keeping something back. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins. An elegant rather than powerful Clerc Milon, with a slightly ferrous, well-structured but never grippy finish and a saline aftertaste. Give this 4–5 years in bottle. Classic Pauillac through and through.
- vinous.com

The 2020 Clerc Milon is soft, fruity and supple. Inky red fruit, plum, lavender, rose petal and spice all meld together in the glass. The 2020 is not terribly complex, but it is open-knit, radiant, and incredibly appealing, even in the early going. I suspect it will offer quite a bit of pleasure right out of the gate. The proportion of Merlot is a bit higher in this year's blend, which no doubt contributes to the wine's appeal. Tasted two times.

vinous.com

53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. First vintage for Caroline Artaud (ex Fourcas-Hosten). Cask sample.
Dense and profound with layers of fruit and tannin. Subdued nose with a floral note. Tannins powdery but very finely layered. Exudes power but is harmonious at the same time. (JL)