Château Pontet Canet 2021
Review of the Estate
Positioned adjacent to Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Pontet-Canet is blessed with excellent terroir. Extensive improvements to vineyard practices over the past twenty years have built on this natural advantage. This has elevated the wines created at Chateau Pontet Canet to impressive heights challenging and surpassing the wines of nearby top estates, particularly in difficult vintages.
Chateau Pontet Canet is unique in Bordeaux in that they have been certified both biodynamic and organic since the 2010 vintage. Synthetic chemicals are not used and there are now horses to work the vineyards because they are gentler on the soils than tractor tires. Soils which are repeatedly worked by machines may become compacted over time and this makes it more difficult for vine roots to penetrate deeply enough into the subsoil.
All fruit at Chateau Pontet Canet is handpicked and is placed into small crates that minimise the possibility of the grapes being crushed before they reach the winery. Careful sorting is done with both vibrating machines and a large group of workers in order to remove all but the healthiest grapes.
A new and improved vat room was built in the cellars for the Chateau Pontet Canet 2005 vintage. Upgrades included cone-shaped stainless steel tanks and cement vats. The cellar also operates entirely by gravity, ensuring that the grapes, must and wine are all handled as gently as possible.
Chateau Pontet Canet uses very precise blending techniques, with parcels being fermented in small lots. After fermentation, the wine is run off into barrels, 60% of which are new, where it is then matured for 16 to 20 months.
Vineyard
Surface area: 160.5 acres
Grape Varieties: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot
Average age of vines: 40 years
Density of plantation: 10,00 vines per hectare
Average yields: 45 hectoliters per hectare
Average cases produced: 14,500 per year
Plateau of maturity: 15 - 50 years
Château Pontet Canet 2021 Reviews / Tasting Notes
William Kelley - The Wine Advocate
Point Score: 91-93
Offering up wild, exotic aromas of blackberries, cloves and Indian spices mingled with notions of rose petal, bruised orchard fruit and cherry pit that evolve rapidly in the glass, the 2021 Pontet-Canet is medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a layered mid-palate and refined tannins that assert themselves on the firm, saline finish. Always one of the Medoc's most singular, idiosyncratic wines, it will be interesting to see how it performs in bottle.
Neal Martin - Vinous
Point Score: 91-93
The 2021 Pontet Canet is quite perfumed on the finely delineated nose of blackberry, briar and pressed iris flower, a touch of inkwell coming through with time. The palate is medium-bodied with a pinch of white pepper on the entry and gentle grip. Not as enormously deep as other vintages, as you would expect, but it displays a fine bitter edge and a graphite-infused finish. This should drink earlier than other vintages yet has the substance to mature in bottle.
James Suckling
Point Score: 95-96
Plenty of blackberry and blueberry with wet earth and crushed stone. Some spice,tobacco and lead pencil, too. It's full-bodied with layered tannins and brightness. Fine and chewy at the end.