Ronan by Clinet, Bordeaux 2018

"An old favourite this, almost pure Merlot (with 5% Cabernet Franc) from the team at the famous Pomerol estate of Château Clinet, using fruit from surrounding Right Bank appellations. It's a brisk red and black-fruited style, focused on fruit and its tannin and acid structure rather than oak. Ther's a touch of leafiness, a little graphite and cedar, but its a relatively firm, chewy and gastronomic Bordeaux of good quality at a very fair price."

"The prices of Bordeaux's elite have spiralled beyond the reach of most mere mortals over the past two decades. Even last year, when Covid-19-led economic uncertainty led to an average 21% drop in prices of the generally very good 2019 vintage, you're looking at several hundred quid a bottle for the biggest most in-demand names. Those wines are, to all intents and purposes, investment vehicles now rather than drinks, and theres something powerfully odd and sad in the idea of all those thousands of bottles of superlative wine sitting in cellars accumulating value rather than being poured and causing delight to drinkers. The closest most ordinary wine lovers come to the Bordeaux top table these days is by sampling their diffusion lines, with Ronan from the team that makes Château Clinet, one of the leading estates in Pomerol in Bordeaux's Right Bank area, a satisfying 100% merlot snapshot of that estates sumptuous house style."