Château  Le Clou  "Andromède" barrique 2003, A.C. Monbazillac **HERITAGE WINE**

color: deep golden yellow.
Nose: expressive, rich, round, sweet, mild, creamy, with earthy iodine, a touch of mushrooms, ripe  apricots,  vanilla, confit orange and lemon peel, honey, minerals, very clean and with lovely sweet oak, matching the richness and fruit perfectly, also good freshness, great, multi-layered  depth and complexity, excellent and rich balance. 
Taste: very intense, rich, unctuous, very sweet and full bodied, very mild with many layers of ripe and confit fruits, minerals, honey, vanilla, wood, mushrooms, raisins, a touch of smoke, earth and iodine, very complex,  great depth with balancing freshness, really impressive smooth richness with good balance.
Finish: impressive, rich, intense, concentrated, very long and soft, very sweet, but with matching intensity and richness, beautiful citrus fruit, vanilla, honey, some freshness.

* A super intense, rich, smooth and sweet wine, a barrique aged super cuvée with an impressive array of confit fruits, honey, vanilla, raisins, minerals, earthy nuances, great depth and complexity, an impressively rich, quite sweet and unctous style, excellent purity and beautiful balance. Great expression of terroir, organically produced. Great value for money.

- This wine is delicious now,  but will continue to improve for several years, has not an excellent staying power because of its mild acidity, but will last at least until 1012, maybe 1017

- Some might find this wine too sweet and rich, I also prefer a bit more elegant style, but this wine is so great and so well made I rate it very, very highly. It takes an exceptional year to produce a wine with such an intensity, it takes a good vineyard and mature vines to provide so much character, it also takes a very dedicated and capable producer to make from all this potential such a great wine. The use of wood is also exemplary, it adds so much extra to the wine's impressive fruit, it does not compete but complements and highlights all the deliciousness of the withered fruit. You will seldom come across such an impressive clean and complex Monbazillac.  If you like this type of wine: try to get some quickly, this is a rare wine!
  

- lotnr.: L ?

- tasted: 09-11-’06

- estimated retail price ca. 15,00 euro per bottle

- average production: ca. ? bottles

- Château Le Clou, 24240 Pomport, Mr. Manuel Killias, tel.+ fax: + 33-553633276 ; e-mail: contact@chateau-le-clou.fr ; web site: www.chateau-le-clou.fr