St Emilion’s Chateau Clos des Sarpe is one of Bordeaux’s smallest estates. At just 3.7ha (Petrus is a relatively massive 11.7ha in comparison), it is minuscule and produces so little wine that few have even heard of it. For Jeb Dunnuck, this “tiny, insiders’ estate that deserves more recognition in the market” and, with a massive 97+ points, the 2015 vintage is the perfect place to start as, for him, it “might be one of the greatest wines to ever emerge from this tiny vineyard”.
A rich and powerful St Emilion from an excellent Bordeaux vintage, this 2015 is one of the picks of a retrospective undertaken by Jeb Dunnuck in 2020. For him, this “hits the palate with full-bodied richness, an incredible sense of opulence, and silky, polished tannins” and is “an incredible drink today”.
Yields are minute, with the majority of vines in this minuscule vineyard from the 1940s and 1960s. These vines mean epic concentration and depth, but only tiny amounts of juice. With only 900 cases made in 2015, this is an incredibly rare St Emilion that only a few lucky collectors will get to add to their cellars.