Chateau Clerc Milon 2011
Chateau Clerc Milon 2011 is more backward on the nose compared to the d’Armailhac: quite sumptuous in style with black fruit, dark plum, vanilla and a pungent violet scent. The palate is wonderful: a fabulous line of acidity, tensile and focused, mineral and intense with blackberry, citrus fruit, bilberry and cedar towards the elegant, yet intense finish. There is something almost Lafite-like about this Clerc-Milon and in my book, there is nothing wrong with that.”
Chateau Clerc Milon is a winery in the Pauillac appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of eighteen Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. It is located in the northern part of the Pauillac appellation, with its vinery building in the village of Mousset, and faces Chateau Lafite Rothschild on the other side of the D2 road.
Chateau Clerc Milon, acquired by Baron Philippe in 1970, has a 41-hectare (99-acre) vineyard located between two prestigious First Growths, Mouton and Lafite. Chateau Clerc Milon was entirely redesigned and rebuilt in 2011. The vat house with its gravity-fed stainless steel vats, the surprising half-underground, colonnaded barrel hall and the light, airy reception rooms are housed in a building shaped like a temple and clad in ipe wood, its façade and vast terrace overlooking the vines.
Like Châteaux Pontet-Canet, Château Clerc Milon is considered one of the stars of Pauillac’s Fifth Growth properties. Since 1970 it has been owned by the company Baron Philippe de Rothschild of First Growth Château Mouton Rothschild fame. Back in the 19th century the terrain, around the village of Milon, belonged to Jean-Baptiste Clerc who achieved Fifth Growth ranking for his vineyard in the 1855 classification of the Médoc. After his success, Clerc sold off a small portion of the estate to a Monsieur Lamena, and it is this property rather than the larger vineyard subsequently inherited by Clerc’s widow that was granted the use of the Clerc Milon name (Lamena fought in court for the right to use the title, and won). Lamena’s success, though, could do little to counter the ravages of vine disease during the decades that followed, nor could a string of different owners weather the war and recession of the early 20th century, and Clerc Milon fell into disrepair. Its rescue by Baron Philippe de Rothschild involved complete reorganisation and renovation of the vineyard and facilities, though by the 1980s the effort and investment were already paying off.
