1995 L'Évangile

This chateau is on a hot streak, having produced one of the handful of top Pomerols virtually every year since the late '80s. Under the direction of Jean-Luc Marchive, L'Evangile took a full month to harvest in '97, carefully controlled the temperature of fermentation (those who overextracted their merlots got a vegetal note, says Marchive), and has produced a charming wine to drink after six or seven years. Only the old vines went into the grand vin, which represents a strict 45% selection. The press wine, says Marchive, was declassified into the generic wine; it was not even good enough for the estate second wine. Incidentally, Marchive, who is always candid about his own wines, still ranks the '94 slightly ahead of the '95. It's more complex, he maintains, while the '95 is a bit more difficult to understand and atypically powerful for this property.

According to proprietor Denis Durantou, vines on the Pomerol plateau (gravelly topsoil, with clay underneath) near the church did well in '95, with wines from peripheral soils showing less color and some dilution from the September rains. Durantou got very ripe cabernet franc in '95, and the final blend will include about 20% of this variety. In '94, in contrast, Durantou eliminated some of his franc planted on clay from the final blend, finding this juice a bit vegetal and the tannins slightly dry. There were unchaptalized cuvées with 13.2% potential alcohol in '95, and acidity levels were slightly lower than the previous year. The '94 L'Eglise Clinet was aged in about one-third new oak.