Tapenade, dried flowers and blackberries. Full body and round, juicy tannins. Balanced and fresh with driven focus and depth. Vivid finish. Really underrated. Don’t miss this. Just starting to come around.

The 2008 Clos l’Eglise has a very pure, floral bouquet that is actually not dissimilar to the 2008 Barde-Haut, but shows more finesse and composure, perhaps a little more “confit” in style. The palate is medium-bodied with caressing tannin, impressive depth and fine mineralité towards the finish. This is a classy showing, a Pomerol with panache, though it will require another three or four years in bottle. (Tasted at the château and at BI Wine & Spirits’ annual vertical tasting.)

An intense yet delicate effort, this Pomerol property had a tiny production in 2008, and the levels of concentration and polyphenols are as high as, or surpass those in 2005, 2001, 2000, and 1998, the most recent top vintages of Clos l-Eglise. The dense purple-colored 2008 reveals a sweet perfume of blue and black fruits, licorice, truffles, graphite, and forest floor. With superb concentration, beautiful intensity, an unevolved, backward style (no doubt due to the late harvest and late malolactics), and high, but sweet, well-integrated tannins, this full-bodied, admirably concentrated 2008 should be at its peak between 2013-2028.

There's a chewy quality to the texture of this wine, showing grilled oak and espresso notes which are just a touch dominant, but there's a beautiful shot of salty caramel through the finish. It's still in its primary phase, where the fruit is full of flesh and spice, and it remains extremely concentrated right now.
Tasted by Jane Anson (at BI, London, 01 Jan 2018)
Part of How Bordeaux 2008 wines taste now: 70 top names rated

(80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc) If this wine were a tapestry, you couldn't stop yourself from running your fingers through it. Clos L'Eglise can count on one of Pomerol's oldest parcels of cabernet franc (45 years old), and its merlot isn't young either at 35 years of age.

Full ruby-red. Deep smoky oak, espresso and exotic spices on the nose. Concentrated, chewy and saline, with the exotic spice and mocha notes carrying through in the mouth. Lively acidity gives this wine an attractively juicy quality. Finishes very long, with substantial dusty tannins.

A strong effort for the vintage, the 2008 Clos l’Eglise offers notes of espresso roast, Asian plum sauce, black currants and a hint of oak in a fleshy, medium to full-bodied style with outstanding purity, texture and length. It can be drunk now and over the next 10-12 years. Kudos to proprietress Helene Garcin and winemaking consultant Dr. Alain Raynaud.

This boasts a modern profile, with notes of mocha and roasted apple wood fronting for dark plum sauce, Christmas pudding, anise and fig bread. The fleshy, toast-driven finish has plenty of weight and should stretch out with mid-term cellaring. JM