2005 Clos l'Eglise, 3-bottle Lot

Clos L’Eglise is a 45-acre estate in the Pomerol appellation in the Bordeaux region of France. Pomerol is an unclassified appellation. The estate was established in the 18th century and like many wine estates in the area, it takes part of its name from the district’s large church, or l’eglise. The estate has changed hands numerous times over the centuries, but in 1997 it was acquired by Sylvanie Garcin-Cathiard, part of the family that owns Smith-Haut-Lafite and Barde-Haut. Vineyards are planted to 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc. About 15,000 bottles of Clos L’Eglise are produced annually. The second label is Esprit de L’Eglise. Robert M. Parker has written that since the late 1990s when the new owners brought in consultant Michel Rolland to guide the winemaking, “the result has been a succession of brilliant wines.”

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux’s red wine producing regions, with only about 2,000 acres of vineyards. Located on the east side of the Dordogne River, it is one of the so-called “right bank” appellations and therefore planted primarily to Merlot. Pomerol is unique in Bordeaux in that it is the only district never to have been rated in a classification system. Some historians think Pomerol’s location on the right bank made it unattractive to Bordeaux-based wine traders, who had plenty of wine from Medoc and Graves to export to England and northern Europe. Since ranking estates was essentially a marketing ploy to help brokers sell wine, ranking an area where they did little business held no interest for them. Pomerol didn’t get much attention from the international wine community until the 1960s, when Jean-Pierre Moueix, an entrepreneurial wine merchant, started buying some of Pomerol’s best estates and exporting the wines. Today the influential Moueix family owns Pomerol’s most famous estate, Château Pétrus, along with numerous other Pomerol estates. Pomerol wines, primarily Merlot blended with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, are considered softer and less tannic than left bank Bordeaux.