Château Clos de Sarpe 2016

Jean-Guy and Christine Beyney focus on making well-structured, concentrated wine. Here, touches of rusticity on the nose are followed by some heat from alcohol on the attack, but this settles down to reveal attractive juice running through the astringent tannins, along with flavours of charcoal, chocolate and cloves. 60% new oak. 30hl/ha yield.

Blackberry, oyster-shell and salt aromas highlight this wine from the beginning. Full-bodied, firm and chewy with polished and intense flavors and tannins. Energized. Try from 2023.

Concentrated, dense, stony and fresh, with a deep core of ripe, salty plums. The fruit has a spicy quality, with polished tannins and the structure to age, but this is not a user-friendly wine for early drinking. You will need to give it at least 12 years for everything to come together, but it is going to be worth the wait. The wine was made from a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc.

sweet, jammy fruit, some dusty notes, medium weight with sweet fruit, rounded with a medium to long finish.

An off-the-hook Saint-Emilion, the inky colored 2016 Château Clos de Sarpe is mostly Merlot but includes 15% Cabernet Franc. A beautiful, floral character gives way to more blueberry, raspberry, spice, and cedar notes, and it's medium to full-bodied, fresh, and elegant on the palate, with thrilling purity of fruit. It's still tight and reserved at the moment, with a focused feel on the palate, but has tons of potential. Give bottles 5-7 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 15+. Tasted twice.

Medium purple with violet highlights. The bouquet of Clos de Sarpe 2016 aims to seduce and makes that clear from the very first aromas. Notes of candied fruit. The palate lives up to the promise of the nose: seductive… but—and this is the interesting point—not at all cloying. It’s pleasant thanks to lovely freshness… though it could perhaps be just a touch less showy. The tannins are finely grained and the structure has class, with a solar touch as well. By trying to do a lot, there may be a bit too much of everything in the bottle. This does nothing to detract from the wine’s merits, but it shouldn’t become too confit-like. I scored this wine 92–94 during en primeur and I’d be inclined to confirm 94… but not today! To be continued.