Opulent, lush, and loaded with layers of perfectly ripe, black and red plums, chocolate, cherries, flowers, truffle, licorice, smoke, and a background note of mint. The wine is concentrated, long, deep, and fresh, with silky tannins and a finish that doesn't want to quit. Drink from 2023-2045. Tasted Sept 2023

Gorgeous nose with lots of dark fruit like plum and blueberries. Crushed pepper and chalk with wild strawberries and vanilla. Dense and velvety on the palate with superbly polished tannins and great depth. It's absolutely gorgeous now but needs at least five to six years of bottle age to really shows its great quality.
-www.jamessuckling.com, 'Tasting Report: 2010 Bordeaux "More Great Vintage"', 3 Feb 2012

(95-96 pts)
Nothing on the palate and then all of a sudden it blasts off on the finish. Superb Clinet. Full and velvety. Juicy.

The blend is largely dominated by 85% Merlot, with some Cabernet Sauvignon and a small amount of Cabernet Franc also included. Inky/purple-colored, the wine has an exceptionally full-bodied, layered, moderately tannic mouthfeel and impressive power. Loads of melted chocolate/fudge and black fruits galore along with some coffee bean, mocha, as well as some background oak are all present in this big, formidably endowed, masculine style of Pomerol that will take longer to shed its tannin than the 2009. I would give this wine 5-6 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 30+ years. Drink: 2018 - 2048

The 2010 is another fabulous effort from this estate of just over 20 acres located in the sector named the same as the chateau, Clinet. Modest yields of 38 hectoliters per hectare produced a final blend that hit 14.4% natural alcohol.
-Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #205 Feb 2013

(95-98 pts)
2010: A spectacular success in this vintage, this blend of 85% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc achieved 15% natural alcohol. Sadly, there are only 3,400 cases primarily because of the small Merlot crop (yields were only 29 hectoliters per hectare). The wine’s opaque purple color is followed by an extraordinary bouquet of boysenberries, blueberries, black currants, licorice, truffles and a hint of asphalt. The wine possesses great intensity, a multidimensional mouthfeel, stunning glycerin and richness, and wonderful freshness as well as precision because of the vintage conditions. This massive Pomerol will age effortlessly for 30-35 years. Equaling what Clinet achieved in 1989 and 1990, it is the third successive great vintage for this estate.

The 2010 Clinet is a baby, but man, what a wine. Checking in as mostly Merlot, with small amounts of both Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this deep ruby/purple-tinged beauty gives up fresh, tight aromas of blackcurrants, black cherries, damp earth and forest floor, with its background oak buffered by serious amounts of fruit. Full-bodied, concentrated and deep, yet also elegant and layered, with the freshness, purity, and structure of the vintage, it sings even today with a decant, but is best with a few more year of bottle age. It’s going to keep for 2-3 decades.

This showy, packed and well-endowed Pomerol pumps out notes of warm linzer torte, plum preserves and blackberry reduction, all supported by a broad, charcoal- and ganache-coated structure and deeply embedded acidity. Very muscular on the back end, this boasts a still-chewy feel. Among the most backward of the 2010 Pomerols, this requires significant cellaring. For those who enjoy more power than subtlety. JM

Tasted blind at the Southwold Bordeaux 2010 tasting. The Clinet 2010 has a tempting truffle-scented bouquet with fine delineation - crushed violets developing beautifully in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp red berry fruit on the entry, fine angular tannins with a tart but focused, tense finish. This is a fabulous Clinet from Ronan Laborde and his team, although I suspect that the 2009 Clinet may eventually turn out to be the superior wine. Tasted January 2014.

Good deep ruby-red. Brooding, superripe aromas of blackberry, plum and coffee. Seriously concentrated and dense, but with juicy acidity giving energy and definition to the thick flavors of dark plum, flowers and potpourri spices. This very suave, plush wine finishes with substantial but noble tannins that dust the front teeth. This big boy has the stuffing and structure for a slow and graceful evolution in bottle.

(14.5%, 60% new) [85M/12CS/3CF] Dense, oaky nose; powerful, ripe, finely tannic wine – oak tannin clear at the moment; an almost raisiny intensity of fruit, pure and elegant in its powerful style; long, vivid and intensely fruity in a quite robust style, dark black fruit finish, warm and spicy, almost slightly roasted in character. Power and finesse at once, with a firm, chewy tannin. A vital thread of acidity keeps the wine fresh in spite of its power. Lovely fruit and scent of the aftertaste. Will need time. 2022-35+ [M.Schuster, Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2011]