As with almost all the more famous Château de Bordeaux, even for Pontet-Canet the story begins back in time, in the middle of the 18th century, when a French high magistrate, Jean-François de Pontet, buys some plots north of the village of Pauillac. To this original nucleus, in 1757, is added an entire property in the area of Canet, from whose name, associated with that of the owner, was officially born Château Pontet-Canet. The fame of the wine produced earned the inclusion among the Médoc Grands Crus Classés wines, in the famous classification of the Bordeaux merchants in 1855, contributing to increase its prestige, to the point that, already in 1865, just one of those merchants acquires the estate, starting a series of modernization works. Since 1975 the winery belongs to the Tesseron family and passed from Patriarch Guy to his sons Alfred and Gérard, in 1994, and finally, in 2015, to his niece Justine, assisted by his brother, Noé, and cousins Mélanie and Philippine.
The current extension of the estate is 81 hectares, divided into 100 different parcels, most of them with vines over 50 years of age, planted on a gravelly hill with a calcareous skeleton, the so-called “plateau”. It corresponds, at the level of the Gironde, near the village of Pouyalet, to a couple of kilometers north of Pauillac, the remaining part of the vineyards, characterized by a greater content of limestone and clay. The composition of these last soils makes them ideal for the production of Merlot grapes while, on the “plateau”, live the grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon, the main grape of this wine.
In 2004, the winery began a process of agronomic transition with the first 14 hectares of Merlot vineyards carried out according to a biodynamic rules system. The encouraging results of this pilot project have made that already in 2010, this Château, the first in Bordeaux, officially certified its transition to organic (Ecocert) and biodynamic (Biodyvin and Demeter). The work in the vineyard is conducted without the use of chemistry, replaced by special homeopathic herbal teas, made in a specific room used for their production. To avoid the excessive compaction of the soil, tractors have been replaced by draft horses and, to promote the richness of the ecosystem, the botanical enrichment and the consequent spontaneous grassing of the vineyards is favored. Obviously this attention in the vineyard goes hand in hand with a natural approach in a cellar where there are three different vat rooms: one, of the 19th century, in wood (the “Skawinski”), one, of 2005, in cement (the “Nicole”) and one with terracotta amphorae (the “Anphore”) positioned according to the size of the golden ratio, finished in 2017.
The result of all these attentions, both in the vineyard and in the winery, is a wine mainly composed of Cabernet Sauvignon (62%) and Merlot (32%), with a balance of Cabernet Franc (4%) and Petit Verdot (2%), planted with a density of 9,500 vines per hectare. The harvest, carried out manually in small wooden boxes, with a first selection in plan, is followed by the destemming and a second selection on a special sorting table, before the pressing. Spontaneous alcoholic fermentation and maceration takes about four weeks, followed by malolactic fermentation in barrique, while aging is carried out in a mix of new barriques (50%), cement amphorae (35%) and second pass barriques (15%), for a total duration of about 18 months.
The 2015 vintage shows an intense and concentrated ruby color, with an olfactory range that opens on notes of cooked plum, mulberry, tomato sauce and roasted coffee, followed by black cherry jam, black currant, rhubarb branch and vinyl, with final echoes of eucalyptus, incense, vinyl and carpentry. The palate is sumptuous, opulent and creamy, with a good balsamic freshness, a hint of spiciness and young but already silky and elegant tannins; all enriched by the return of the overripe red fruit and spices that accompany the sip until an almost endless closure.
Rating: 93/100
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