A blend of 85% Garnacha and 15% Syrah, 2018 Clos Erasmus comes from a year with good yields and enough rain for good ripeness of the grapes. The vines are now 36 years old on average, and the grapes fermented after a cold soak in 1,000-, 1,500- and 2,000-liter oak vats with indigenous yeasts and a five-week maceration. It matured in new and second use Burgundian 228-liter oak barrels, with around 40% new oak. This is a very elegant and perfumed vintage for Clos Erasmus, a wine that reveals a bright ruby color and a exotic nose that mixes flowers with tons of sweet spices. It is still very young and influenced by the élevage in oak, with something herbal and fresh, reminiscent of pine needles. The palate is textured and velvety, lace and dust, with fine-grained tannins that bring back the memories of the slate rocks; it is pure and detailed and has terrible balance, focus, inner strength, filigree and subdued minerality. I'd wait a little bit for the oak to get integrated before pulling the cork. It has the ingredients, stuffing and balance to develop nicely in bottle for a long time. 3,319 bottles and 100 magnums produced. It was bottled in May 2020.
99 points, Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Issue # 252 - Dec 2020)
Similar in style to the Laurel, the 2018 Clos Erasmus is an incredibly pure, seductive, supple 2018 offering heavenly blueberry and black raspberry fruits as well as notes of spice box, wildflowers, and crushed stone-like minerality. Full-bodied and perfectly balanced on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins and a wonderful sense of freshness and purity, it’s already impossible to resist, but smart money is on 2-3 years of bottle age, and it’s going to evolve for another 20 years or so. The 2018 is 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah, which is slightly more Syrah than what’s found in the 2017. While I have a slight preferance for the 2017, both vintages are sensational.
98 points, Jeb Dunnuck (Mar 2021)
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