2022 Ch Clerc Milon 5ème Cru, Pauillac

Focused and bright with plenty of fruit but oranges and minerals in the mid-palate. Really fresh with a fresh bitterness.

95-96 points James Suckling

The 2022 Clerc Milon is beautiful, offering up aromas of cherries, raspberries and plums mingled with hints of pencil shavings and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's taut and lively, with a vibrant core of fruit framed by fine, chalky tannins. Its clay-limestone terroir lends it a distinctive signature that sets it apart from the rest of the portfolio.

93-95 points The Wine Advovcate

The depths are evident in the velvety texture and colour, and it stretches out through the palate with slow confidence. Plenty of grip and supple tannins that cradle the cassis and bilberry fruit, studded with olive, cocoa bean, white pepper, slate, clear spice, intense phenolics and this is excellent quality. Caroline Artaud technical director. Old vine Carmanère no doubt helps add the spice and eucalyptus edge. 63% of production in this wine, 55% new oak, 3.83ph. 37hl/h yield.

95 points Jane Anson

As to the Grand Vin 2022 Château Clerc Milon, it reminds me of the 2018 with its full-bodied, ripe, yet elegant style. Cassis, graphite, espresso roast, and lead pencil notes define the aromatics, and it has a beautiful spine of acidity, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It shows the ripe, exuberant yet structured style of the vintage beautifully. The blend is 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Carmenère, harvested between the 9th and 26th of September, with an alcohol content of 14.5%, a pH of 3.83, and an IPT of 74. The élevage here is 55% new French oak. Tasted multiple times with consistent notes.

94-96 points Jeb Dunnuck

The 2022 Clerc Milon is a blend of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Carmenere. Deep garnet-purple in color, it races out with vivacious notes of fresh blackcurrants, black raspberries, and boysenberries, leading to touches of bay leaves, Indian spices, and garrigue. The full-bodied palate is packed with black fruit and savory layers, framed by firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long with an herbal lift. pH 3.83, TPI 74.

93-95 points Lisa Perrotti Brown

(59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 1% Carmenère, 55% new wood, 3.83 pH, 14.5% alcohol) Finely scented and fresh, with subtle spice, a wonderful florality, violets, blond tobacco and black cherries and Currants, a poem. Fresh on the palate, well structured, not a gram of fat, a lot of elegance in this wine, the density, the precision of the tannins, the balance of structure and fruit, impressive. A wine with class and charm.

95-97 points AvV vvwine

Fragrant, perfumed black berries and purple flowers. Smells intense and concentrated, deep, dark and rich. Bold and characterful from the first sip, supple and generous, a lovely shot of strawberry and red cherry fruit gives the tang and immediate excitement while the tannins, stoney and cool, enter and give the frame and focus for the finish. Really well made, great drive but plush at the same time, it’s silky yet well defined and also weighty and forward. A big mouthful that is just so juicy and fun, lively, expressive, well worked and so easy. A step-up from Pastourelle. Super accessible and really enjoyable with the sweet juicy tang that I adore and stony minerality on the finish that is moreish. Immediate pleasure on offer. 12.8% press wine. 1% Carmenere completes the blend. HVE3 certified. Ageing 18 months in French oak barrels, 55% new. 3.83pH.

95 points Decanter

Château Clerc Milon is one of Pauillac's most exciting Fifth Growths, transformed under the ownership of Baron Philippe de Rothschild into an estate of remarkable quality and distinction. Today it stands alongside the region's finest, producing Cabernet Sauvignon led wines that unite the power of Pauillac with exceptional elegance, precision and longevity.

The vineyards occupy superb gravelly soils on the northern edge of Pauillac, neighbouring some of Bordeaux's most famous estates. Cabernet Sauvignon forms the backbone of the blend, supported by Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carménère. The exceptional 2022 vintage produced fruit of extraordinary concentration and freshness, creating a wine of depth, harmony and classic Left Bank character.

The colour is an inky garnet with vibrant purple highlights. Aromas of cassis, blackberry and black cherry are entwined with cedar, graphite, cigar box, violets and subtle spice. The palate is rich yet impeccably balanced, carrying waves of black fruit through velvety tannins and vibrant acidity. Notes of dark chocolate, liquorice and crushed stone emerge across a remarkably long, refined finish that speaks clearly of its Pauillac pedigree.

Magnificent with dry aged rib eye, roast lamb, venison loin or beef Wellington with truffle. While already immensely impressive with extended decanting, this outstanding Fifth Growth will continue rewarding patient cellaring for decades.