The 2021 Château Pape Clément checks in as a blend of 50% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, and splashes of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc that was brought up in barrels and tuns. Its deeper ruby/plum hue is followed by a beautifully layered, round, medium-bodied Péssac offering ripe black cherry and currant-driven fruit, some textbook scorched earth and tobacco notes, a round, layered, expansive mouthfeel, and ripe yet integrated tannins. It's one of the gems from Péssac that will shine for 15 years.

The 2021 Pape Clément is a tightly wound, reticent wine. A core of bright red-toned fruit lies behind a wall of tannin and acids that is pretty impenetrable at this stage. I imagine the 2021 will come around at some point, but it is pretty austere in the early going. Tasted four times.

The 2021 Pape Clément exhibits notions of sweet berries and cherries mingled with rich aromas of espresso roast, black truffles, toasty new oak and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, deep and quite extracted in style, it's a rich, fleshy wine that gained in integration and harmony over the the three weeks I spent in Bordeaux. Tasted three times.