Chateau Pontet Canet 2020 a vibrant and elegant Pauillac with aromas of blackcurrants, black cherries, and subtle hints of walnut, cocoa, graphite, and cedar. Full-bodied and structured, it features silky tannins, bright acidity, and a long, expansive finish, revealing layers of plum, blue fruit, licorice, and mineral notes. 

JamesSuckling.com | JS 98
Published: Jan 4, 2023

Aromas of blackcurrants and black cherries with hints of crushed walnuts, grilled thyme, cocoa powder and graphite. It’s full-bodied with layers of ultra-fine, silky tannins that elegantly coat your palate, allowing the juicy and vibrant fruit to shine. Delicate and pristine, yet compact with lots of energy and power to uncover in the coming years. It lasts for minutes and is delicious now. The purity of fruit is really impressive. 60% cabernet sauvignon, 32% merlot, 4% cabernet franc and 4% petit verdot. 50% new oak 15% old oak and 35% concrete amphorae. Try after 2027.

Decanter | D 97
Published: Jan 2, 2023
Drink: 2027-2048

Dark chocolate, bramble tones, not overly floral or fruity with some cedar and cinnamon notes. Lovely high acidity straight away, forward, bright and energetic with lovely crunchy blue fruit on the palate but creamy textured tannins giving a round and complete mouthful. Nothing feels overdone, this is quietly seductive and confident but not at all showing off. I love the minerality and the graphite grip with plum and black cherry and tons of slate, liquorice and menthol freshness. Long finish, slowly expansive, building and growing from start to finish showing an impressive structure overall. Nicely constructed, charming still with the Pauillac touch. A great Pontet - immediately seductive and enjoyable with a long ageing potential.

The Wine Advocate | RP 92+
Published: Apr 06, 2023
Drink: 2023-2040

While Justine Tesseron declined my request to taste at the property, I was able to acquire a bottle of the 2020 Pontet-Canet for review. The wine starts strong, wafting from the glass with attractive aromas of cherries, sweet berries and plum preserve mingled with lilac and licorice, but that's followed by a medium to full-bodied, firm and extracted palate that lacks the amplitude and flesh to conceal the rather drying tannins which dominate the earthy finish. It's an open secret among Bordeaux insiders that this estate—which has benefited from such significant and laudable investments and which was on such an upward trajectory through 2011—has been a perplexingly erratic performer since 2012, intermingling successful vintages with relative failures, and the 2020 only confirms that. While the 2020 isn't by any means a flawed wine, and time may well be kind to it, it doesn't transcend this estate's fifth growth status, even if this château's terroir clearly has the potential to.

Jancis Robinson | JR 17.5
Published: Oct 11, 2023
Drink: 2028-2045

60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot.
Deep crimson with smudgy rim. The fruit is so much fresher and more vibrant than on the 2019. Thick, dry, firm, honest tannins filled out by the cedary-cassis fruit. Chewy, compact, harmonious for a long future. Needs time in bottle to gain in elegance. 

Pontet-canet.com

Each year in Bordeaux is unique, truly not resembling any other. Like any child, a wine has two parents: a father-terroir and a mother-vintage. It will have something of both, but above all it must be itself.
The vine cycle got off to a slightly late start. Then unstable weather during flowering caused shatter, which reduced the number of berries, especially in our older Merlot parcels.
However, sun and drought predominated until harvest time, heralding a fine vintage.
We made considerable progress in our use of draft horses, increasing the surface area on which tractors are not used at all from 7 to 24 hectares (17 to 59 acres).
The vinifications, reduced to the essential at Pontet-Canet, were a reminder that a great wine is made first and foremost in the vineyard.
The result of our choice of organic and biodynamic viticulture, the 2010 vintage is the only one among the Medoc Classified Growths to have both certifications.

Harvest: from September 29th to October 17th
Grape varieties: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon - 30% Merlot
4% Cabernet Franc - 1% Petit Verdot
Alcohol: 14.5°