La Clarté de Haut-Brion 2018

'The 2018 La Clarté de Haut-Brion is composed of 79.2% Sémillon and 20.8% Sauvignon Blanc, harvested August 27 to September 5. It comes bounding out of the glass with bold notions of warm pineapple, guava and peach juice plus hints of lanolin, honeysuckle, lime cordial and nutmeg. Medium to full-bodied with a lovely oily texture, it fills the mouth with exotic fruit, lifted by just enough freshness and culminating in a long, pineapple-laced finish.'

Domaine Clarence Dillon pretty much nailed it across the board in 2018, from the first growth(s) in Pessac to the Saint-Émilion wines; to the more humbly priced, larger volume offerings; and even the whites, which were also tricky considering the heat. All the wines are ripe and seductive, true to what 2018 wanted to give as a vintage, and yet they possess bags of bright fruit, energy and freshness. “The first key to success this vintage was to start the first mildew treatment in the vineyards a little bit earlier than usual,” Deputy Managing Director Jean-Philippe Delmas of Domaine Clarence Dillon informed me. “If you did that, you were protected. If you didn’t, you had to constantly run after the disease. The second challenge was the date of the harvest—the date was finally quite late. The best solution was to wait to get ripeness but to pick before there was heaviness or the wines got too fat.” I asked Delmas which he loved more this year, Cabernet or Merlot? “I loved everything,” he promptly replied. “And on the Right Bank, the Cabernet Franc was wonderful this year, which isn’t always the case. I would say Right Bank and Left Bank are the same for quality.” Bravo team!