Proprietor Denis Durantou has produced a blockbuster Pomerol from a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, tipping the scales at just over 14.5% natural alcohol. A riveting wine, pure, elegant, but at the same time, extremely powerful and concentrated, with stunning texture, opulence and density, the tannins are abundant, and the wine certainly in need of a decade of cellaring. Fabulous creme de cassis and cherry liqueur notes are intertwined with hints of licorice, truffle, and graphite. Full and rich, but still in an infantile state of development, this wine needs to be cellared for 10 years but should keep for five decades or more. This 2009 is absolutely profound.

(98-100)
The 2009 l'Eglise Clinet may eclipse some of the other efforts made by proprietor Denis Durantou over the years. Harvested between September 14 and 28, this blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc is a powerful, almost uber-concentrated wine that tastes like an elixir of Pomerol with an incredibly unctuous feel. This dense purple-colored 2009 (which achieved 14.5% natural alcohol) is extremely powerful, but that power is concealed beneath a mountain of glycerin, fruit, concentration, and body. The purity and richness are off the charts, and the silkiness of the tannins is ethereal. This extraordinary wine possesses extremely high levels of tannin, but according to Durantou, they have almost disappeared because of the wine's amazing depth and richness. It will undoubtedly need a decade of aging after bottling, but it should last for 50+. It is a modern day legend in the making. (Tasted two times.)

The 2009 L’Église-Clinet has a wonderful, entrancing bouquet with black cherries, truffle, crushed stone and pressed rose petals that blossoms with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a silver bead of acidity, fresh and poised with touches of truffle and graphite towards the finish. Sheer class from Mon. Durantou. - vinous.com, March 2019

[85M/15CF] Gently roasted nose, ripe black cherry and mineral; rich and restrained at once; fairly full, elegantly concentrated, very finely textured, noticeably fresh and moderately tannic wine; a deliciously sweet fruit which is energetic, thoroughbred, racy, fragrant; power without any feeling of force, warmly, delicately mouthcoating, subtly minerally, with a long and splendidly perfumed, sweet aftertaste. A richly imposing Pomerol of remarkable freshness and great persistence. 2020-40