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

Robert Parker Pontet Canet 1994 Review

Score: 91 Points

1994: Readers should take note that the Tesseron family is making major efforts to rebuild the image of Pontet-Canet and establish it as one of the finest wines of the northern Medoc. Quality has soared since the 1994 vintage, but prices have not yet caught up with the “new” Pontet-Canet. However, this is not a forward, luscious, rich, sweet, fruity style of Pauillac (such as the charming Pichon-Lalande and Haut-Batailley), but rather, a dense, masculine, massively-styled wine meant for long-term cellaring. One of the finest as well as longest-lived wines of the vintage, this opaque purple-colored 1994 needs 7-10 years of cellaring. A rich, impressive, full-bodied wine, it represents the finest Pontet-Canet produced since the 1961. This full-bodied, purely made wine is crammed with blackcurrant fruit, as well as forbiddingly tannic and backward. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2025. Impressive!

Score: 91