| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
So much floral and dark-fruit character with almonds and walnut shell. Full body and ultra-fine tannins. Powerful. Classic style with a harmony and energy. Goes on for minutes. A superb wine with great fruit. Real Bordeaux. Try in 2025.
The 2015 Pontet Canet is endowed with impressive lift and delineation on the nose of blackberry, graphite and tobacco – classic Pauillac all the way through. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin and slightly herbal in style. The graphite-infused finish is missing a little depth and grip (like some other 2015 Pauillacs), though it seems to develop with aeration. I suspect that the 2016 will be superior. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2015 Pontet-Canet is deep garnet-purple colored. It rolls effortlessly out of the glass with notes of blackcurrant pastilles, raspberry coulis, and blueberry compote, plus suggestions of candied violets, beef dripping, and tar. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm and grainy with seamless freshness framing the generous red, black, and blue fruits, finishing long and lifted.
Tasted blind. Blackish crimson. So intense it almost has no smell. Dense and dramatic but a bit too sweet and meaty to appeal enormously to me. Bit of a rugby player of a wine. Impressive but not charming.
Drink 2026-2040
Alfred Tesseron has been making constant improvements since the early 1990's. Grapes are manually sorted by a team of 30 people on specially made sorting tables. The vineyard has been organic and bio-dynamic for 10 years and is worked by horses. A part of the maturation is now done in egg-shaped concrete amphoras. 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. 50% new oak, 15% one year old barrels, 35% amphoras. A modest 13.5 degrees in 2015. Deep purple colour with a brooding black fruit nose, laced with a perfume of milk chocolate and sweet vanilla. The palate is fat and juicy with cassis fruit. Lots of glycerol and a thick texture give way to layers of ripe but chewy tannins. The fruit core is intense, sweet and warm, providing real intensity and length on the finish. This is sweet, plush, and powerful, but retains its balance.
The 2015 Pontet Canet is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot brought up in 50% new oak, and 35% in amphora. With textbook Pauillac notes of lead pencil shavings, tobacco leaf, smoke, and licorice, as well as a core of pure crème de cassis fruit, this beautiful, full-bodied, impeccably balanced is one of the few 2015s that’s going to demand cellaring. The tannin are high, yet sweet, and like its bright acidity, nicely integrated into the wine. Forget bottles for 5-7 years and enjoy over the following three decades. I don’t put this as the level of the 2009 and 2010, but it’s still a beautiful wine. Tasted three times. 2023 - 2053
Concentrated black fruits the nose has depth the palate brooding richness. Firm in the middle black cherry backed by cassis the mid tannins are quite tight. There is more power at the back a density of fruit the richness giving way to fresh bilberry the finish is lighter and fragrant.
The thick skins of the 2015 grapes made it easier to be organic and biodynamic when the
rains came in late August, according to winemaker, Jean-Michel Comme. This is certainly a
very serious, concentrated Pontet-Canet with compact, almost Italianate tannins, plenty of
oak and layers of dark, plummy fruit. The finish is just a tad dry perhaps. Drink: 2022-35
This is a dark and intense Pontet-Canet with brooding power on the nose and exceptional intensity. There was very little
second label made and so the cépage reflects basically the balance of vines planted on the property. 95% of the wine
made here with Pontet-Canet on the label is Grand Vin and this is remarkable. The energy and vitality is sensational in
this imposing wine and there is already immediate harmony in this blend. The power and innate resonance here is to be
admired. The silkiness and texture here is unlike other wines with superb harmony which makes it all the more fascinating
because of the counterpoint between the darker hue in the centre and its bright red rim. It opened up beautifully in
the glass and showed spectacular grainy tannins marked by spicy oak. The spice must come from the hot period in the
summer and I noticed this in increasing numbers to top wines as my tour progressed. This is also a very long wine on
the finish.
A blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, 50% of the 2015 Pontet-Canet was aged in new French oak, while 15% was matured in second fill barrels and 35% in cement amphorae. Deep garnet-purple in color, the nose opens with exuberant black currants, red currants and black raspberries scents plus an evocative undercurrent of cedar chest, dusty earth, cloves, chocolate box and Provence herbs with a fragrant waft of lavender. Medium to full-bodied and built like a brick house with very firm, wonderfully grainy tannins and black and red fruits charged with the most singular energy, it finishes with incredible persistence and depth. 2024 - 2045
The 2015 Pontet-Canet has an intense, crushed violet-scented bouquet that as I remarked upon out of barrel, imparts a Margaux-like personality. It is quite high-toned and exuberant at this early juncture and will clearly require several years to calm down. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent black fruit on the entry, quite spicy with notes of black pepper and sage, perhaps just a little fiery in personality. However, counterbalancing this is a sense of harmony and focus. It is just a bit boisterous at this early stage, then the finish is tightly wound albeit well defined, leaving that spiciness as its calling card on the aftertaste. Anticipated maturity: 2022 - 2045.
The 2015 Pontet Canet was tasted on two occasions around two weeks apart and I noticed a superior showing the second time around. This year is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot that was picked from 18 September apropos the Merlot and from 28 September for the Cabernet, finishing on 3 October. It is matured in 50% new oak, 35% concrete and 15% one-year-old barrels. It has a pure and perfumed bouquet with small dark cherries, red plum and subtle violet scents, perhaps a little Margaux-like in style, the second showing demonstrating a little more red fruit character. The palate is medium-bodied with a slightly grainy texture on the entry. There is nicely judged acidity here, moderate depth, very supple tannin that lend this a silky texture. There is modest weight towards the second half, perhaps spicier than some of its Pauillac peers with an edgy, lightly peppered finish. It is an intriguing and complex, almost mercurial Pontet-Canet, a wine that I suspect will gain more weight during its élevage. Afford this 5-8 years in bottle and you should have a delicious, intellectual Pontet-Canet on your hands. Drink 2022-2045
This is very fine and silky with a beautiful vivid blackberry and blueberry character. Super polished tannins. Refined and very, very long. Fabulous harmony to this young wine. Very classic Bordeaux. Superb depth and length. Real Bordeaux.
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Pontet-Canet comes charging out of the glass with fantastically expressive notes of black cherry preserves, black raspberries and blackcurrant pastilles plus touches of kirsch, wilted roses, tobacco, camphor and cinnamon stick with a waft of fragrant soil. Full bodied, the palate is laden with black and red fruit layers, supported by very firm, very finely grained tannins and provocative freshness, finishing with incredible length and stunningly perfumed.
Refined, fresh-but-ripe nose. Lots there. Drier than the 2016 with masses of fine tannins to chew on. Very healthy wine. But with a lot of tannins. Wait! Healthy, revitalising finish.
Drink 2028-2048
Dark purplish crimson. Very ripe start and then rather drying tannins on the end. Wild and lively but a little bit heavy. I'm looking for a little more freshness. There's austerity and astringency (because of the amphorae influence?) but I'm not sure it compensates for the lack of acidity. Savoury, salty finish. Distinctive. 13.5%
Drink 2025-2040
