One of the wine merchant’s great pleasures: actively hunting down those wines we genuinely look forward to sharing. It's dreary to sell what needs to be sold; a far happier start comes with finding bottles we enjoy drinking ourselves. With this '88 l'Eglise Clinet we allocated ourselves 2 bottles from the 2 cases we purchased.
Following the ’85, the ’88 is the second great vintage of the modern era here. The ’85 is sweeter and softer, more hedonistic, though I’ve always been partial to this ’88. It’s the savoriest l’Eglise Clinet of its era, a beautiful tangle of smoke and tobacco and coffee, then the trail of Pomerol plums behind.
The Château's Cabernet Franc vines are among the oldest on the Right Bank, the property having been spared by the 1956 frost that devastated much of the region. Classic 'Franc herbs always find the nose yet are never sharp or astringent. This '88 shows the way.
Cheers,
Jason
