Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 29/06/2010 This wine stands out as a sensational effort just a few years away from full maturity. A 50/50 blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine displays loads of scorched earth and smoky barbecue scents along with blueberry, black raspberry and black currant. The wine is expansive, has a savory, broad palate and a full-bodied mouthfeel, yet possesses vivid purity and uplift. The tannins are still present, but they are sweet and well-integrated. This wine should hit full maturity in another year or two and last for at least 20 more years. The profound 2000 (a blend of equal parts Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) continues to put on weight. An opaque purple color is accompanied by stunning aromas of wood smoke, cocoa, black currant and cherry liqueur, coffee, scorched earth, and new oak. A wine of extraordinary concentration, elegance, and complexity, it is one of the finest Pape Clements of the last three decades, but look out ... the 2001 may be even better! Only 55% of the production made it into the final blend. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2025. (95)

While the 2000 Château Pape Clément doesn't match the 2005 or 2010, it's nevertheless a brilliant wine in every way. Fully mature, with incredible aromatics of red and black currants, new saddle leather, smoked tobacco, and that classic Graves scorched earth character, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a lively, elegant mouthfeel, beautifully integrated and resolved tannins, and a lively spine of acidity that keeps it light on its feet and vibrant. There's no upside to additional cellaring, but it probably has another decade of prime drinking and a gradual decline thereafter.

This wine stands out as a sensational effort just a few years away from full maturity. A 50/50 blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine displays loads of scorched earth and smoky barbecue scents along with blueberry, black raspberry and black currant. The wine is expansive, has a savory, broad palate and a full-bodied mouthfeel, yet possesses vivid purity and uplift. The tannins are still present, but they are sweet and well-integrated. This wine should hit full maturity in another year or two and last for at least 20 more years.

Saturated ruby. Roasted raspberry and currant, smoke, tobacco, earth and oak spices on the nose. Sweeter, lusher and deeper than the 2001, but with excellent underlying backbone. Wonderfully complex in the mouth. Finishes long and firmly tannic, with subtle notes of smoke, minerals, tobacco and brown spices.

The 2000 Pape Clément is a vintage that I last tasted in 2010. Now at 21 years of age, it shows little sign of aging on the rim. The bouquet is perhaps less advanced, demonstrating fewer secondary aromas, compared to its peers, and featuring mulberry, camphor and touches of fig and damson that blossom in the glass. It becomes quite feral, maybe even slight bretty, with aeration. The palate is very malleable on the entry, quite rich and dense, velvety-smooth and yet missing some tension and grip on the finish. This is a thoroughly enjoyable Pape Clément that could probably give 15–20 years’ more drinking pleasure, though I aver that more recent vintages dig deeper into the terroir. Picked September 28 to October 10 at 31.5hl/ha and matured in 100% new oak.