2001 L'Eglise-Clinet

I got the impression that Denis Durantou didn't much like his 2003 L'Eglise-Clinet at the outset but was feeling a little better about the wine by early April. Durantou picked extremely early, on September 3 and 5, bringing in just 32 hectoliters per hectare, which he described as a normal crop load. "With my low yields, I can get ripe skins early, without losing acidity and freshness," he told me. According to Durantou, only clay soils retained enough humidity to prevent grapes from losing all their moisture and withering. "There's nothing vegetal about the 2003 fruit here," he went on. "And the grilled note is from the vintage, not the oak." The young 2003 has sound acid structure and a low-for-the-vintage pH of 3.65. "The polyphenol level was high in 2003, but was even higher in 2000 at the beginning," he said. "But 2000 has almost too much of everything, and great sucrosite The 2003 is a less obvious wine that merits reflection."

"Two things must be said about the 2002 vintage on the right bank," said Denis Durantou in early April. "First, everybody says they vinified in 2002 to preserve the fruit, but this is something they should do every year. Also, vintage 2002 was a year when growers rediscovered the virtue of the assemblage, the importance of cabernet in their blends. The merlot alone was not good enough to make complete wine." After tasting Durantou's superb 2000, I asked him where he ranked it among his vintages of the past 20 years. "1998 is best, then '95, '00, '85 and '86," he said, adding that the 1989 and 1990 examples were almost too ripe for his taste.

Denis Durantou brought in his 2001 merlot on September 22 and 23, just before a substantial rainstorm. "Each year, there's really only a three or four day window for picking perfectly," noted Durantou, who told me last year that he may have harvested a bit late in 2000. Durantou's comparison of his 2001 and his 2000 closely mirrored my own impressions of the wines I tasted at a number of estates in the Medoc as well as on the right bank. "The 2000 is all about power, but the wine tends to be alcoholic, even a bit heavy. We needed the cabernet franc to balance the massive merlot. The 2001 is more complex and will be easier to drink. It may be less powerful but it's more complete; it's a more intellectual wine that's full of surprises. It plays on the palate like a Champagne with a very fine mousse. My 2001 is a very pure expression of old vines on the Pomerol plateau, rather than simply a vin de cepage." Durantou went on to say that he considered the brilliant '98 L'Eglise-Clinet the best wine he has ever made, and the only one he expects to be alive in 50 years. "Imagine what we could have made in 1985 if the yield had been 35 hectoliters, as it was in 2001, rather than the 52 we made in '85."