The 2019 vintage of Pontet-Canet is proving to be a remarkable wine, capturing a blend of classic Bordeaux structure with a touch of modern elegance. Its aromas are richly expressive, offering a bouquet of plummy fruit, kirsch, dried herbs, and peonies. The palate is full-bodied and seamless, with melting tannins and succulent acidity that carry the wine through to a long, liqueured finish. The blend includes 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, with 35% of the wine aged in amphorae, contributing to its distinctive identity. The wine’s freshness and complexity promise a long life ahead. Critics have noted its incredible balance and subtle smoky notes that emerge as the wine evolves. While some have found it a bit perplexing in terms of typicity, the wine’s finesse and layers of flavor are undeniable. It’s a wonderful wine to cellar, with a drinking window extending well into the 2040s.

JamesSuckling.com | JS 99
Published: Feb 7, 2022

The aromas to this are really amazing, with a potpourri of spices and dried flowers, as well as redcurrants, sweet plums and even some peaches. Full-bodied with layers of ripe fruit and ultra-fine tannins that spread across the palate in an encompassing yet always elegant and pure way. It’s succulent and unadulterated. Like crushed, perfectly ripened grapes. The length is rather endless. The tannins build. Fabulous young red. 35% in amphora and the rest in 50% new oak and 15% one-year oak. 65% cabernet sauvignon and 30% merlot, the rest cabernet franc and petit verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes. Try after 2028, but an absolute joy to taste now.

Decanter | D 98
Published: Jan 5, 2022
Drink: 2027-2047

Such gorgeous aromatics of freshly picked violets, cherries and bramble fruits - pretty and quite delicate. The texture is smooth and succulent, mouth coating but full of soft tannins which have the most delicious black cherry, blackcurrant flesh and liquorice tinge to them - so satisfying. Extremely well balanced and well integrated, this has restrained power, it's not rich or particularly round but straight, direct and layered rather than wide. Really long finish with great freshness and touches of cool blueberries. This is just such a great wine, everything you want and you know there's power there promising a long life. Great winemaking on show. 35% aged in concrete, 50% new oak, 15% in barrels of one year, for 16-18 months. This year there's a new label, the drawing of the house has remained but the font is more elegant and modern. A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot.

The Wine Advocate | RP 93
Published: Apr 7, 2022
Drink: 2021-2045

The 2019 Pontet-Canet offers up an expressive bouquet of plummy fruit, kirsch, dried herbs and peonies. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and seamless, with melting tannins, succulent acids, and a long, liqueured finish. Tasted twice, it's a wine I find somewhat perplexing: in a blind tasting, I might be more inclined to place it in Gigondas than Pauillac. I'm far from dogmatic when it comes to what the French call "typicité," and stylistic diversity surely enriches every appellation; but by the same token, I'm not convinced that this is the most compelling aesthetic that a Cabernet-based blend from this part of Bordeaux can realize. Checking in at 13.7% alcohol, some 35% of the production was matured in amphorae, which no doubt contributes to the wine's idiosyncratic identity.

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 16.5
Published: Oct 26, 2023
Drink: 2028-2040

65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot.
Very deeply coloured with deep garnet rim. Complex, slowly maturing aroma that retains black fruit and starts to show a tertiary note of leaf mulch. Ripe and spicy and quite open. Smooth, chewy and caressing, with the freshness to balance the rounded texture. It's fresh enough in terms of acidity but the fruit seems a little too ripe for energy, the texture a touch leathery on the finish. The sample is quite warm and I think this would be better served a little cooler.

Pontet-canet.com

After quite a mild winter, the first leaves appeared on the vines at the beginning of April. Despite a very unusual cold snap in May, which slowed cane growth for some days, flowering ensued very quickly and uniformly. Then summer settled in and the first grapes began changing colour on July 23rd. A few much-awaited showers quickened the pace of this initial colour change and by the end of July, in just a few days, ripening was well underway. Harvest time approached in very promising conditions with the fruit presenting lovely crispness.
On September 23rd in brilliant sunshine, the Merlot grapes were picked followed by the Cabernet Franc. In the very last days of September the “real” Medoc harvest began with the first crates of the princely Cabernet Sauvignon being picked.
On October 10th at midday, when the last Petit Verdot had been brought in, the secateurs were put away and tranquillity returned to the vines.

Tasting 2019
The wine displays a very attractive, intensely dark colour with purple glints.
The nose adds to the appeal, offering a magical array of aromatics ranging from graphite and cedar-wood notes to aromas of wild fruit. The depth of flavour on the palate is underpinned by soft tannins and lovely acidity. The finish, which reveals subtle smoky notes, is amazingly long. In this vintage,
Pontet-Canet shows once again that natural refinement is its finest jewel. 2019, without doubt, is a promise of voluptuousness for all wine lovers.

Harvest: from September 23rd to October 10th
Grape varieties: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon - 30% Merlot
3% Cabernet Franc - 2% Petit Verdot
Alcohol: 13.5°