Description
Closerie du Pelan, Francs-Côtes-de-Bordeaux
When a wine of this pedigree, exclusivity, and quality finds its way to us, it’s hard to decide what to lead with. But, for all the romance behind this 2000 from Closerie du Pelan, I’m going to be coarse and play the numbers game: You simply don’t find well-aged, collector-tier wines at this price very often. When it does happen, there’s a good chance the wine is from Bordeaux—perhaps the only region in the world with the terroir, history, and scale to pull off such an incredible feat. Add in the epic backstory and insider cachet of Closerie du Pelan (which is now owned by the family behind natural Bordeaux unicorn Château Le Puy) and you’ve got an offer that seems too good to be true. But it’s real, and it’s spectacular—albeit limited. We have a pristine cache of bottles from the iconic 2000 vintage, direct from Closerie du Pelan’s cellar to yours. Don’t miss your chance to drink history!
Wine pundits the world over used words like “perfect” to describe the 2000 vintage in Bordeaux, noting that it was a success across the entirety of the region. Closerie du Pelan is a unique property situated in what most experts would consider an “outer-borough” location: the eastern edge of Bordeaux’s “right bank,” at the confluence of the Francs-Côtes-de-Bordeaux and Côtes de Castillon AOCs. These appellations, which sit on essentially the same clay/limestone plateau as Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, are prime hunting ground for value-hunters, who know that market prices from one village to the next are often much more dramatic than the differences in the terroir.
Add in a producer with the focus and pedigree of Closerie du Pelan and the lines aren’t just blurred but effectively erased. A local artist named Régis Moro purchased the property in 1984 and poured his energies into viticulture, embracing organics and biodynamics with the same enthusiasm as his old friend, Jean-Pierre Amoreau, whose Château Le Puy has become a cause célèbre with the natural wine crowd. Although Moro managed to achieve organic certification for Closerie du Pelan in 2008 (and biodynamic certification in ’13), the wines weren’t finding a broad-enough audience; in 2022, the Amoreau family—which has owned Château Le Puy for more than 400 years—saw the potential at Pelan and decided to purchase it from Moro.
Upon taking the reins at Closerie du Pelan, the Amoreaus wanted to get a sense of what they had, and started uncorking back-vintage bottles with their US importer—a revelatory tasting that led to today’s offer. Held in perfect conditions and still closed with its original cork, this 2000 is a soulful and complex expression of a ripe and powerful vintage. The wine displays a ruby-black core moving to orange at the rim, belying its 20+ years of age, and the aromatics are a mature Bordeaux-lover’s dream: brambly black and red berries, black plum, wild mushroom, cedar, tobacco, warm spices, turned earth, and fired clay. It’s noteworthy that the vineyards at Closerie du Pelan contain about 75% Cabernet Sauvignon (unusual for a Right Bank estate), perhaps because there’s more sand and silt in the Pelan parcels relative to those at Le Puy, and the structure of this wine reflects that healthy Cabernet presence. It is a beautiful, sinewy wine with lots of lively energy for its age, and it can handle a brief decant (for sediment) prior to service in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees. Pair it with a dish that will complement its floral, earth-driven personality and celebrate perhaps the greatest Bordeaux deal of the year. Cheers!
