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2017 Pontet-Canet

Wine Details
Producer

Pontet-Canet

Place of Origin

France

Pauillac Grand Cru Classé

Bordeaux

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot (2023 vintage)

Vintages
202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012201120102009200820072006200520042003200220012000199919981997199619951994199019891988198219621961194919451924
Reviews & Tasting Notes

00

Drinking Window

2021 - 2040

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Latour is one estate that is moving towards biodynamics, though it is Pontet-Canet that is synonymous with Steiner’s philosophy. It was the first to embrace biodynamics when its neighbors traduced it as a passing fad and it remains the most dedicated. It is a 365-day practice whether it is root, flower or leaf. As usual I met with winemaker Jean-Michel Comme on my two visits to the estate. “For those that were not hit by the frost, which was the case in Pauillac, the vintage was pretty easy,” he tells me. “We were only lightly hit, which means almost nothing. We made more wine than in 2016. It was sunny with low disease pressure and we stayed confident to the end. There was some rain but the grapes were not affected. There was no de-budding, de-leafing or green harvest. We had very little rot and we started the harvest on the afternoon of 18 September, picking plot by plot, following ripeness levels over 10 days, stopping and starting. There was a gap of four days at one point. There was no hurry. We started picking the Cabernet Sauvignon ten days after the Merlot, though it would have been sooner if the rot had attacked the Merlot. We kept the pickers here, de-leafing the vines to improve aeration just before harvest. The sanitary conditions were very good because the roots took up the water. We produced around 34-35hl/ha, the natural production of the vineyard.”

“This is the first vintage we have used the new vats for around one-third of the production [the remainder in concrete and wooden vats.] We extracted the gravel to make the frames of the new buildings but we decided to clean and wash them, divided them into different sizes of sediment and the smallest was used for the buildings, the medium for the production of the fermenters, the largest used for drainage in the vineyard. The shape is a 2nd century Roman amphora known as Dolium. They are reshaped in the same proportion, 1.61, which is known as the “nombre d’or”, the golden number. It is used in churches. There are 32 vats that are all 40hl/ha in size, which is very small considering the size of the estate. There is no more pumping over as everything is now punching down by hand. In fact, there is no electric power in the vat-room [Pontet-Canet has begun using geo-thermal heating and eventually the entire estate will be fuelled by natural underground heat.] The extraction allows the skins to do the work themselves, with little action in terms of heating and cooling. Only one vat had to be cooled because the heat is so gently expelled.”

Once you have digested all that information, it is clear that Alfred Tesseron, now assisted by his daughter Justine, is pioneering and others are following. That does not obviate criticism. In fact, honest feedback is crucial as an estate breaks new ground because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is swishing around in the wine glass. Now, this was one estate whose unfinished wine transformed between my first visit in March to my second visit in April (amongst the melee of visitors queuing up in the vat-room). On my first visit the wine lacks a little depth and as I have remarked before, did not convey Pauillac typicité. However that trait was much more evident on the second visit: more linearity, substance, a touch more backbone and reserve on the finish. Ah, now that was the Pontet-Canet I recognize. My tasting note in this report comes from the second visit, as I believe it to be more indicative of the direction it is heading.

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