I do not believe that I have ever tasted a more beautifully soil-driven example of Mercurey rouge than the 2022 Clos du Roi from Laurent Juillot! The wine is nicely ripe at fourteen percent alcohol in this vintage and offers up a simply stunning bouquet of sweet dark berries, black cherries, plums, coffee bean, a complex base of chalky soil tones, woodsmoke, pigeon, a hint of graphite, brown spices, woodsmoke and a deft framing of cedary new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and gorgeously transparent down to its soil, with a lovely core of fruit, great precision and grip, fine-grained tannins and a very long, pure and complex, beautifully balanced finish. A couple of the Juillot 2022 red wines have a bit more mid-palate stuffing than this lovely Clos du Roi, but they do not posses the same expression of soil and haunting elegance this year as the Clos du Roi! It is a truly lovely wine in the making.
93 points, John Gilman, View From the Cellar (Dec 2024)
Moderate reduction and generous wood overshadow the fruit at present. More interesting are the equally attractively textured medium-bodied flavors that possess a suave and punchy mouthfeel that also contrasts markedly with the very firm, compact and overtly powerful finish where the only reproach is a touch of warmth. This is borderline old school in style as it is unapologetically built-to-age. This is also one to look for but only if you expressly intend to cellar it as it's not likely to make for especially interesting early drinking. *Outstanding*
92 points, Allen Meadows, Burghound (Oct 2024)
Top Quality Store
