This is really classy with length and polish that shine brightly. Also, you see blackberry, bark, currant and mushroom character. Full-bodied with wonderfully polished tannins and a seamless finish.

The 2023 Pape Clément is one of the most exciting wines I have tasted here in a long time maybe ever. Intensely aromatic and layered the 2023 is simply stunning. Dried flowers mint licorice mocha cedar and tobacco soar out of the glass. The purity of the flavors is simply mind-blowing. Plum pomegranate blood orange and spice build in the glass adding notable textural richness and resonance. This is the first vintage vinified with indigenous yeasts. Aging takes place in a combination of concrete tanks ceramic eggs Clayvers 400-liter barrels and 225-liter barriques. For readers who want to taste the “new” Bordeaux this is it. What a wine! Tasted four times. 2030-2053

The 2023 Pape Clément is the first vintage fully employing crème de levures using native yeasts in the vineyard to start the fermentation and improve balance together with two native yeasts regularly employed since 2012 (to maintain some consistency). It was picked from September 5 to October 3 and matured in 60% new oak including foudres. The 2023 is cut from a very different cloth compared to recent vintages. It’s much more classic in style almost reserved with tightly wound black fruit mixed with briar and light gravelly scents. The palate is medium-bodied with a light entry just a pinch of spice and moderate depth. The silky peppery finish is more tertiary than you would expect to find on what was once quite a bombastic Pessac-Léognan. One sample had a soupçon of herbaceousness whilst another at the château had none at all. Very fine. I like this new direction. though I would not regard this as a benchmark for future vintages. This will be interesting to revisit after bottling.