2022, Château Pontet-Canet, PAUILLAC, 5ème Grand Cru Classé

Bordeaux Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot

Alfred Tesseron has been at the helm at this 5th Growth for nearly 50 years and constant improvements have been made in both viticulture and vinification. Grapes are manually sorted by a team of 30 people on specially made sorting tables. The vineyard has been organic and biodynamic for 10 years and is worked by horses. 2022 blend is 57% cabernet sauvignon, 35% merlot, 4% cabernet franc, and 4% petit verdot.

What a finish on this Pontet-Canet. So much energy and brightness. It's full-bodied yet so tight and focused with superb fruit and transparency. It is racy and fine with super fine texture. It's like crushed cabernet sauvignon with cassis, tobacco and cigar box. Liquorice and spices. 99-100 James Suckling.

The 2022 Pontet-Canet is deep garnet-purple in colour. It needs considerable swirling and coaxing to reveal aromas of damp earth, fragrant soil, crushed rocks, and underbrush, giving way to a profound core of blackcurrant cordial, juicy black plums, and fresh blackberries. The full-bodied palate is laden with nuanced black fruits, slowly releasing earthy and mineral-laced flavours, framed by firm, ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note. Talk about tasting the place! This is Pauillac in all its powerful, energetic glory. 97-99 Lisa Perrotti-Brown.

The 2022 Pontet-Canet is a surprising wine. Usually much more opulent, especially in warm, dry years, the 2022 comes across as restrained and understated. It is a wine of linear intensity rather than size, marked by notable freshness and a feeling of tension and precision I don’t recall seeing in the past. Clean mineral notes extend the finish effortlessly. I very much admire the precision and vibrancy here. Unforgettable. 95-97 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.

The 2022 Pontet Canet has a pure nose with perfumed blackberry and cassis fruit. It takes time to cohere, evolving light pencil lead notes after 8-10 minutes. The palate has a lovely chalky texture on the entry, and a silver bead of acidity. Perhaps, more complexity than the aromatics suggest at the moment. Fine balance, moderate grip, the mineralité coming toward the final third, it fans out with gusto. There is quite a long residual peppery note on the aftertaste that you can feel after 30 seconds. I have not pulled any punches in recent vintages, when stylistically, I felt that it has veered too far away from Pauillac, for my personal taste. But closely examining this 2022, today, it seems safely within the appellation. 94-96 Neal Martin, Vinous.

Vivid plum colour, violet reflections, chewy tannins from the first moments. Loaded with cassis, blueberry and fresh fig fruits, laced through with rosemary, sage, dried herbs, edges of chamomile and fresh mushroom. Tight in its tannic structure, with smoked earth, cinnamon, cardamom and lavender. Mathieu Bessonnet technical director, and the 47th vintage of owner Alfred Tesseron. 94 Jane Anson.

Vibrant, vivid purple colour in the glass, rich and deep. Smells bright, super fresh and expressive on the nose with freshly-picked blackcurrants and perfumed purple flowers - the Petit Verdot, really standing out. Clean and clear, creamy, powdery and softly chewy on the palate. The texture is lovely, you can tell they haven't over extracted but there’s still clear concentration with a gentle succulence provided by the acidity, cool freshness and appealing mineral touches alongside liquorice, clove, dried herbs and bitter chocolate. 95 Georgina Hindle, Decanter.

Drinking Window: 2028 - 2050