No more 2015, onto the equally venerable 2016…

When Maylis Marcenat turned her back for a moment during the tour, Agents Noir and Vine looked at each other and their jaws dropped in unison. Close de Sarpe, and their wines, were impressive as hell, to say the least. The older the vintages got, the better they showed. Like Cheval Blanc good!

When the numbers arrived once they were back stateside, jaws dropped again. These cherrypicked library vintages of a cult garagiste darling to be had for so little, but if only purchased directly, and discreetly through the right connections?! The code of Right Bank Bordeaux had been cracked.

Today, you reap those benefits. Not once, but twice. Sadly, only 40 cases of each were allocated so we’ll be featuring them back-to-back until they sell out. And that is a certainty. The early bird gets the treat!

Poetically put by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW of Wine Advocate “My visits to wineries are most often the consequence of an invitation. Not an invitation by a winemaker or owner, I hasten to add. The types of invitations I respond to are the bottled types. They tend to arrive unexpectedly during a peer group tasting for one of my regional reports. I will come to a glass that surprises / confounds / captivates and eventually compels me. The 2015 Château Clos de Sarpe was one such invitation. In this wine, there was an obvious plush, rounded, youthfully hedonic side. And yet, there was solid subtext among the layers that spoke of age-ability, promising much more to come… I knew I had to see this place.”

She adds “These days, Clos de Sarpe has joined the ranks of no-compromises wineries in Bordeaux… the old vines naturally give very low yields and powerful, concentrated wines, contrasted by incredible freshness, thanks to that consistently low pH that the site gives. In this evocative collection of vintages that I tasted, the journey of a family and their incredible dedication to this small, beautiful piece of land unfolds in a way that only wine can reveal, and so, putting aside the numbers for a moment, I couldn’t recommend more highly to readers the experience of drinking in their incredible story.”

In our experience, the wines were SO strikingly good that we were in awe. They are sensual, and bodacious, yet with infinite complexity, words come short in trying to explain something that must be tasted to be believed. They are transformative, especially in a vast ocean of sameness all over the bucolic hamlet of Saint-Émilion where the ethereal can easily get overlooked amongst the flashy and the famous.

A final word from Jeb Dunnuck who sums it up well. “Château Clos de Sarpe is undoubtedly a tiny, insiders’ estate that deserves more recognition in the market today… As I hope these reviews show, this brilliant, gem of an estate fashions singular, incredibly age-worthy wines that are well worth seeking out and cellaring.”

Please accept our sincere apologies as we were severely limited to what you’ll see today.

97 Points – Jeb Dunnuck

“An off-the-hook Saint-Émilion, the inky colored 2016 Château Clos de Sarpe is mostly Merlot but includes 15% Cabernet Franc. A beautiful, floral character gives way to more blueberry, raspberry, spice, and cedar notes, and it’s medium to full-bodied, fresh, and elegant on the palate, with thrilling purity of fruit. It’s still tight and reserved at the moment, with a focused feel on the palate, but has tons of potential. Give bottles 5-7 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 15+. Tasted twice. Drink 2024-2039.”