Château Clos de Salles, Pomerol, 2016

This delicious Pomerol is produced from a tiny 1.3 hectare vineyard on the western edge of Pomerol, right next door to the very large and famous Château de Sales, the largest property in Pomerol.

This 2016 vintage is in absolutely pristine condition: aged and developing and absolutely gorgeous for now, with enough guts to age wonderfully for another decade.

It is lush and dark, with concentrated plum and black berry flavours with spice notes, underpinned by fresh, supporting acidity. This is extremely well-made wine and deserves as much attention as it can get. 

The family behind this tiny property is that of my friend Angélique Merlet. Her father, Jean de Coninck, bought the land in 1998 from the estate of the last owner, who had died in 1992 with no heirs. The sad tale is that this owner hadn't been able to sell at anything like the property's real value during her lifetime because it had been dissected by the route of the TGV, right through the vineyard! But Jean and his children set to work in the vineyards and have begun to resurrect the reputation of this boutique estate.

The De Coninck family were originally 19th-Century wine merchants from Belgium and married into the Horeau family (of the Horeau-Beylot wine merchants, established in 1740) in 1927 on the same day that one of her other sisters married into the de Lavaux family. Since then, these two marriages have produced led the Horeau-Beylot negociant business and Château between them, placing them as one of the top Bordeaux negoce of our times.

It's more Bordeaux business stuff, but it's all very interesting and far more common than one might imagine. Trading Châteax, inheritance splits creating new properties, marriages between merchants and families... in some ways it's very medieval; in other ways it shows how pragmatic and sensible it can be to maintain some tradition and expertise within a familial context.

In the winery this wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in new oak barrels and then sees 18 to 20 months of aging in oak barrels before blending in large vats, giving a balanced wine, both accessible in youth and with real aging potential.