2001 Clos de Sarpe
Buying options
Tasting Notes
This was a standout in our vertical – and a wine that holds a special place for Marcenat. As she told us, “For me, it’s better than 2000 – with more freshness, more balance, more everything.” The 100% new oak is integrated, with the nose now showing plenty of tertiary complexity: iron, sousbois and a subtle leafiness mingles with the still fresh, soft strawberry fruit. There’s a transparency here, yet still plenty of concentration – the palate still lithe with soft, plummy red fruit and high juicy acidity that supports the fruit and fills the long finish, complemented by an earthy note. Superb. Blend: 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc
Critic Scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
From an underrated vintage (especially for the Right Bank), the 2001 Château Clos de Sarpe is a bigger, richer wine than the 1999 and has a rocking bouquet of blackcurrants, tobacco, chocolate, Asian spices, and a touch of white truffle and minty herbs. Youthfully colored, medium to full-bodied and both elegant and powerful, it's drinking spectacularly well today yet has another two decades of longevity ahead of it.
The 2001 Clos de Sarpe is deep garnet-brick in color and sings of potpourri and Indian spices with a baked raspberries and plum preserves with a hoisin undercurrent plus a waft of tapenade. The palate is medium to full-bodied with a firm frame of chewy tannins and bags of mature black fruit preserves and exotic spices, finishing with great freshness and depth.
This may be the biggest, richest, most intensely concentrated wine of the vintage in St.-Emilion (much like it was in 2000). Sadly, there are only 900 cases of this unfined/unfiltered 85% Merlot / 15% Cabernet Sauvignon blend (made from yields of 23 hectoliters per hectare), most of which comes from 60-80-year old vines. Made in a huge, nectar of the vine-like style, it is incredibly pure and rich, but is very uncompromising. It appears to be a modern day version of a wine made in the 1800s. Enormously concentrated, massive on the palate, with excruciatingly high levels of tannin, but also high levels of extract, it is meant for patient connoisseurs. It will have a fascinating evolution, lasting 30-40 years, but being conservative, I will just say drink it between 2010-2025. In all respects, this admirable effort is a throwback to days long gone.
About the producer
This small Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé estate is a FINE+RARE favourite. Run by Maylis Marcenat, the fourth generation of her family to do so, the 3.7-hectare vineyard has old vines and limestone soils, producing wines of incredible freshness and great ageability.