【Belongs to the same Neipperg family as La Mondotte, Canon-La-Gaffeliere, the garage wine of Saint-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé B. 】
【Stephane Derenoncourt as Winemaking Consultant】
【James Suckling 94】【Vinous 92-94】
【Decanter 92】【Wine Advocate 90-92】【Vivino 4.2】
Region : Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe
Grape varieties : 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc
Characteristic ageing: 30% new oak barrels for 15 months
Alcohol: 13.5%.
Volume: 750ml
【James Suckling 94】
This has redcurrants, mushrooms, bark and blueberries. Medium-bodied, with a tight and linear character and well-integrated, fine tannins that run the length of the wine. Almost Burgundian in texture. Polished. A blend of 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc. Give this time to open. Best after 2027.
【Vinous 92-94】
The 2021 Clos de l'Oratoire is terrific. It offers a striking mix of dark blue/purplish fruit, chocolate, lavender, spice, menthol and crushed rocks. Dynamic and vibrant in the glass, impresses for its finely cut, somewhat nervous personality. The 2021 represents a pretty big stylistic shift. Some of that is the vintage and some is an evolution in style. The combined effects of those two factors make for a compelling Clos de L'Oratoire.
【Decanter 92】
Nice floral fragrance on the nose, smooth and supple, the tannins have a soft bounce to them here matched with purity of juicy, lively red berry flavours and a delicious salinity on the palate. I like the combination, feels well worked with the detail on show. It's lightly framed in terms of texture but has depth of flavour. I love the transparency where you get crunch, crispness and saltiness. A pristine quality to this.
【Wine Advocate 90-92】
Exhibiting notions of cherries, blackberries and licorice, the 2021 Clos de l'Oratoire is medium to full-bodied, broad and enveloping, with a textural attack, bright acids and a fleshy core of fruit, framed by fine tannins that gently assert themselves on the finish. It's one of the more gourmand, generous wines in the von Neipperg range.
Clos de l'Oratoire is located in the Saint-Emilion region of Bordeaux, France, and is one of the Grand Cru Classé of Saint-Emilion. Owned by the Neipperg family, who have been making wine in Germany for more than 800 years and have since invested in prestigious French wineries, Château O'Hawa is best known for its red coloured family crest, and owns a number of prestigious wineries on the Right Bank such as Château Canon La Gaffelière, a B-ranked so-called ‘Gaffey Cat’, Clos de L'Oratoire, Château Peyreau, Châteaux Peyreau, and Châteaux Peyreau, as well as a number of other prestigious wineries. Château Peyreau, Château d'Aiguilh
Stephan Neipperg is a man of many talents, having studied economics, management and agriculture, as well as historical and classical music. At the age of 26, he took over the reins of Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere from his father, whose La Mondotte has been described by the wine world as the granddaddy of the garage wines, and as modern, but Stephan, a self-proclaimed farmer, is not impressed by these labels. But Stephan, a self-proclaimed farmer, doesn't take these labels seriously. He believes that great wines are only as good as the terroir, and that it's important to go back to the soil, to plant and vinify the wines according to the conditions of the land, in order to produce wines that have a life of their own. His wines are full of colour, powerful, concentrated, pure and fruity, with great ageing ability, all of which make his wines very well supported and loved by drinkers!。
The winery is situated on the north-eastern slopes of Saint-Emilion and has about 13 hectares of vineyards. The vineyards have two main soil types: calcareous clay and Fronsac gravel on the slopes, and sandy clay at the bottom of the slopes. This soil is very favourable for Merlot. The vineyard is planted with 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, and the average age of the vines is 35 years.
The grapes are hand-picked and transported in small baskets on conveyor belts. The berries undergo a sorting process before and after destemming, and the skins are not broken before vinification. The wines are fermented in temperature-controlled wooden tanks for a period of 30 days and extracted using pneumatic capsules. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in 45% new barrels and is aged on the lees, without clarification or filtration, and is then aged in oak barrels for 14 months.
