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You shouldn't need an excuse to open Sauternes but Christmas is a great occasion with plenty of opportunitues to enjoy its many styles. Choose this 2010 for a rich treat and savour it's balance, freshness and depth, full of succulent tropical fruit, exotic spice flavours and honeyed brioche. Enjoy before, during or after a meal!

Pale lemon-gold colored, the 2010 Climens reveals a seriously intense nose of mango pudding, warm pineapples and pink grapefruit with hints of exotic spices, toasted almonds and brioche plus a waft of honeycomb. Powerfully flavored and packed with layers of tropical fruits, spices and earthy notes, it finishes epically long and honeyed.

Dense and lush now, offering tangerine, apricot, honey-roasted almond and dacquoise notes, with a long, powerful, honeyed finish that lets toasted coconut and mango cruise through. The lovely dried pineapple and honeysuckle accents flitter through the background. Shows stunning length and depth. This will become dreamy with age. Best from 2018 through 2035. — JM

Attractive nose with hazelnuts, vanilla and apricot. Lots of dried orange peel and honey in this excellent sweet wine. Dense and very sweet on the palate with bright acidity and wonderful purity of fruit. Soft, well-balanced and very elegant long finish. Medium sweetness. Intense botrytis spice on finish. Better in 2016.
-www.jamessuckling.com, 'Tasting Report: 2010 Bordeaux "More Great Vintage"', 3 Feb 2012

Pale to medium lemon-gold colored, the 2010 Climens offers a lifted, floral nose of orange blossoms and jasmine over a core of lime cordial, grapefruit oil and dried apricots plus hints of lemon preserves and ginger nut. Very sweet, hedonic and fantastically seductive in the mouth, the concentration is beautifully offset by lovely freshness, finishing with fantastic length.

Experience has told me that Chateau Climens 2010 never really gets into its stride during its first decade in bottle and the 2010 is included. It seems a little muffled at first, especially in the context of some very delineated aromatics for this Sauternes vintage, but it gains clarity with aeration. The palate is well-balanced with an unctuous entry. The acidity seems lower than its peers but this really benefits from time in the glass, becoming ever more pixelated and poised. While it pales against the 2009, this constitutes a follow-up worth seeking out rather than squirrelling away. Drink 2018-2035+.

– eRobertParker.com, Apr 2014

Tasted blind. Ripe and honeyed with something like almond paste (reminded me of that white sweet-smelling glue called grip fix that I used at school). Fat and spicy and generous. Lots of richness and breadth and length. So spicy and broad. Very sweet. (JH)