The clay of Pomerol.

Pomerol has no classification. It has no grand chateau gates, no tourist infrastructure, no official ranking. What it has is clay, and what grows in that clay is the most expensive Merlot in the world.

The plateau of Pomerol sits at roughly 35 meters above sea level. The soil changes every fifty meters: gravel on the western edge near the Barbanne stream, clay-gravel in the center, deep blue clay on the eastern plateau where Petrus, Le Pin, and Vieux Chateau Certan sit side by side.

I walked the plateau with Alexandre Thienpont in June 2023. Alexandre manages Vieux Chateau Certan. His cousin Jacques owns Le Pin. The family has farmed this clay since the 1920s. Alexandre pointed to a line of grass between two rows of vines and said, "Here the clay is one meter deep. Two meters to the left it is three meters deep. The wine from each side tastes different."

Merlot on deep clay produces wine with a density and texture that no other combination of grape and soil achieves. The tannins are round but not soft. The fruit is dark but not sweet. The wines from the Pomerol plateau have a quality I can only describe as weight without heaviness.

I import six producers from Pomerol. Combined, my annual allocation from all six is fewer than 200 bottles. The math is simple: small properties, small production, global demand. I am one importer in Florida competing with every wine merchant in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

The wines are worth the effort.