2017 Enclos Tourmaline

A big, powerful wine, Enclos Tourmaline races across the palate with inky dark plum, chocolate, spice, licorice and new oak. All the elements meld together in a rich, sensual Pomerol loaded with personality. Readers should expect a rich, potent style.

One of the riper, more powerful wines in the vintage, the 2017 Enclos Tourmaline boasts a deep purple color as well as a monster bouquet of blackberries, blueberries, plums, roasted herbs, and candied violets. Structured, tannic, full-bodied, and in need of a solid 4-5 years (or more) of bottle age, it should be one of the longer-lived wines in the vintage from Pomerol. This cuvee comes from a miniscule one-hectare plot, just beside Chateau Clinet, that prior to 2012 belonged to Chateau La Patache. It was purchased in 2012 by Hong Kong financer Peter Kwok and it’s been up with the top wines of the vintage ever since. The wine is always 100% Merlot, aged 20 months all in new barrels, and it hit 14.5% natural alcohol. There are a tiny 2,000 bottles produced.

The 2017 Enclos Tourmaline was cropped at 35hl/ha and saw no SO2 during fermentation. It maintains that ostentatious bouquet that I noticed from barrel with quite precocious black cherries and blueberries on the nose. Lush and slightly heady in style, it will appease to readers who seek hedonistic Pomerols. Thankfully the palate shows a modicum of restraint and whilst the 2017 does not quite match the 2015 or 2016, it displays an intensity, perhaps even a hubris, that ensures that it sticks its head above its peers. Very fine.