2019 Chateau Clos Dubreuil Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux 750 ml

Clos Dubreuil landed on Robert Parker’s radar with their 1997, which he called “one of the stars of the vintage.” He proclaimed the next vintage “spectacular,” lamenting the miniscule production just about every time he mentioned the winery. 

Saint-Émilion had a new sleeper hit—and that did not go unnoticed by Jean-Louis Trocard.

The 14th-generation vigneron behind Pomerol’s Clos de la Vieille Eglise, Trocard arranged a private tasting at Clos Dubreuil. He was blown away by the concentration, intensity, and suppleness of the wines, so he figured if Clos Dubreuil, in its early stages, could produce this kind of wine, imagine what a substantial investment—and the help of his good friend Michel Rolland—could do. 

Trocard purchased Clos Dubreuil in 2002, enlisting his son Benoit and 100-point Bordeaux maven Rolland to make the wine. A decade later, Parker called it “always one of the sexiest, most seductive offerings produced in St.-Èmilion,” and in 2019 they made what might be their best bottle ever.

When the Trocards took over the estate, they set about making substantial investments, including installing a gravity-feed system in the cellar. The property didn’t even have two hectares of vines at that point, but careful acquisitions of adjacent vineyards brought the estate’s size to a still-small seven hectares. The Trocards treat the land with utmost respect, working the vineyard only by hand and plowing with horses so as to tread lightly. The land is also now in transition to organic certification.

The 2019 Clos Dubreuil is a wine you’ll love right now and as it develops over the decades.