Extremely closed, this has a wall of muscular tannins and maintains its monolithic expression even two years after I last tasted it. Keep checking in, because this is a stunning wine, with sweet liquorice, graphite, crayon, cassis, grilled herbs, , with the smoke and grilled herb quality Look to the 2009 if drinking soon, but this one will go the distance. 32hl/h yield, 100% new oak, Michel Rolland consultant.

Intense blueberry nose with great precision and expression. Full and vibrant on the palate with a minty note. Vanilla. Wonderful structure. Firm but ripe tannins and very long. Needs time to soften. Great potential. Try in 2016.

– jamessuckling.com, November 2013

Tasted blind at the Southwold Bordeaux 2010 tasting. The Pape-Clement 2010 has a lovely floral, generous bouquet with vibrant vivacious blackberry and crushed strawberry fruit with very well integrated oak, much more expressive than just one year ago. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins on the entry, the oak still a little present but rounded and fleshy in the mouth. This is a really classy wine, breeding from top to bottom. Tasted January 2014.

– eRobertParker.com, Mar 2014

(62% cabernet sauvignon, 37% merlot and 1% cabernet franc; 14.4% alcohol) Deep ruby-purple. Perfumed aromas of strawberry, spicy plum and black cherry. Enters fresh, dense and juicy, with lovely balance to the sweet, syrupy black fruit flavors and lively acidity that extend the rich aftertaste. The long, clean finish features lingering notes of violet and blackcurrant and extremely polished tannins. A great wine and one of the stars of the vintage in 2010: I can't recall a better Pape Clement at a similar stage of development. I've taken issue with this wine in the past for overextraction, but this struck me as by far the most balanced Pape-Clement I've ever tasted. Michel Rolland consults here.

Nicely toasty, with a lovely broad stroke of mocha and ganache spread over the velvety core of plum sauce, blackberry coulis and steeped currant fruit. The long, polished finish keeps a tarry thread running along with the fruit, adding length and range. Not shy on style. Best from 2018 through 2035. 7,966 cases made.

– James Molesworth (WineSpectator.com, March 2013)

Quality 949 | Brand 951 | Economics 943 | buzz brand
Quality: Above the average quality score of its peer group for the 2010 vintage, 819 Brand: We found this wine on 17 of the world's top restaurant wine lists, including Pollen Street Social Economics: Above its peer group average price of £89 for the 2010 vintage Production: Higher production than its peer group average of 92,455 bottles

- www.wine-lister.com June 2017

Bright ruby-red. Complex but restrained aromas of spiced plum, strawberry, mocha, iron, tobacco and sexy oak. Wonderfully rich, layered and concentrated, with a chewy, high-extract quality to its powerful cassis, blueberry, camphor and licorice flavors. Compellingly chewy but without any easy sweetness. Wonderfully intense but not at all overextracted, conveying an impression of medicinal reserve that suggests this wine will be very long-lived. The extremely long, elegant finish boasts noble tannins and lovely energy and lift. A great vintage for this wine, but hands off for at least six or seven years.

Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan (32hl/ha, 13.7%) [50CS/50M] An ample presence to smell; concentrated, beautifully elegant wine with great density of matter, vigour of acidity, finesse of tannic texture; deep, vital, sweet cored wine, a wonderful combination of ripe, black fruit and marked minerality, long and graceful with superfine, velvety tannins; aromatically complex, very long to finish, with the spicy aromatic aftertaste reminiscent of great 1982’s. A remarkable completeness and presence of ripeness allied to freshness and concentration! A great, effortless Pape Clément where you barely notice the new wood until you search for that slightly chalk-dry tannin texture. Powerful, yes, but amongst the finest recent red wines from this estate. 2020-35+ [M.Schuster, Bordeaux Mar/Apr 2011]

Tasted blind. Brick-rimmed and deep garnet. Ripe, almost exotic in its tertiary sweetness of black fruit, coffee and charry oak. Tastes a little over-extracted on the palate but the fruit is still holding centre stage so it may come round once the massive tannins have softened further. Meaty and savoury in its bold richness. (JH)

Blackish crimson. Late arrival at the tasting and doesn’t have much nose. Thick and sweet – cocoa? With a certain inkiness from the tannins. Tough, dry tannins on the end. None of the mellifluousness of, for example, Malartic, nor the extraordinary fruit of the Haut-Brion stable. (JR)

Deep garnet in color, the 2010 Pape Clement comes wafting sensuously from the glass with fragrant notions of dried roses, Chinese five spice and sandalwood over a core of kirsch, warm cassis and plum preserves plus a touch of cedar chest. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is finely crafted with a firm line of ripe, grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the perfumed fruit through the incredibly long finish. LPB

I certainly underrated the 2010 Pape Clement from barrel, rating it only 93-95+. (Thank God I put a “plus” there!) Having tasted it four times in Bordeaux, and rating it perfect three times and 99 the fourth time, this final blend of 51% Merlot, 47.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1.5% Petit Verdot is perfection in a bottle. Tipping the scales at 14.5% natural alcohol, there are 8,000 cases of it. Its sublime elegance, the power, the medium to full-bodied texture, the silky tannins, the subtle notes of smoke, lead pencil shavings, black currants, charcoal, camphor, blueberry and cassis fruit are all remarkable. It is a rich, full-throttle wine, but the elegance and the great terroir of Pape Clement come through in abundance. It is slightly more developed and evolved than the 2005 was at a similar point in its evolution, but it certainly needs another 5-7 years to develop further nuances, which it surely will. This wine will last 30-40+ years.

Robert Parker (Wine Advocate #205, Feb 2013)

A blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot that hit 13.5% natural alcohol, the 2010 Château Pape Clément is a powerful, concentrated, yet still incredibly refined and elegant Pessac. Still youthfully plum-hued with no signs of bricking, it offers a sensational nose of ripe currants, chocolate, scorched earth, and graphite that needs lots of air to show its full potential. Deep, full-bodied, and layered on the palate, it has ultra-fine, seamless tannins and perfectly integrated oak. The inherent elegance of this terroir is certainly here, but this is a concentrated, incredibly impressive Pessac in the early stages of its prime drinking window with another 20+ years of prime drinking ahead of it.

Deep garnet in color, the 2010 Pape Clement comes wafting sensuously from the glass with fragrant notions of dried roses, Chinese five spice and sandalwood over a core of kirsch, warm cassis and plum preserves plus a touch of cedar chest. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is finely crafted with a firm line of ripe, grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the perfumed fruit through the incredibly long finish.