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Wine Description
The Story
Blend: 70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon
Origin: Listrac-Médoc
Soil: Clay-limestone
A distinctive feature of the estate's clay-limestone soil is its remarkable drought resistance. The nearness of the Atlantic Ocean gives it a cool freshness that is echoed in the wine's bright bouquet. The terroir is very well suited to growing merlot grapes in a region where cabernet sauvignon is traditionally king. Thus Château Clarke is typical of the Médoc, but in an entirely original way.
The vast majority of its plots are planted with red grape varieties: merlot accounts for 70% of the 55 hectares and the remaining space is devoted to cabernet sauvignon. Sauvignon blanc, muscadelle and sémillon, which are used in the Merle Blanc blend, occupy a small, three-hectare space for limited production.
Vintage 2020
In Bordeaux, the heat resulted in early flowering. Also, this led to an early harvest after a very hot summer. As a starting point, there is great maturity in the grapes, and one can expect a more opulent vintage than in the last few years.
The summer this year has been the warmest since 1959, yet the rain has fallen at the right times during the growing season. The harvest took place two weeks before the norm and will yield grapes with high potential alcohol and the lowest acidity since the 2003 vintage. As they say in Bordeaux: "It has been a good and extreme growing season which hopefully also produces great wines".