Château Canon 2021

79% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc D’une exceptionnelle élégance, le bouquet de Canon cumule subtilité et pluralité. De bonne expression fruitée grâce à des effluves de baies noires, il affiche également des notes de réglisse et d violettes. De très bonne densité en bouche, il dispose de tannins crémeux et porteurs, parfaitement en phase avec une rafraîchissante vivacité. Quelle haute-résolution en pixels où clarté, fraîcheur et ampleur soulignent l’éclat et le charme de ce vin. 2027-2051 96-98/100.

Lots of crunchy red cherries and blue plums followed by violets, fresh sage and Christmas spices with baking spice and coconuts. Medium- to full-bodied with superb fine-grained racy tannins and beautifully refreshing acidity that gives an edge to it. Gorgeous finesse and elegance with harmony and precision. Delightful, too. Already drinkable but give this a few more years to come around. Try after 2026 and it should be beautiful for a long time.

A brilliant wine in the making, the 2021 Canon offers up aromas of cherries, wild berries, licorice, sweet soil tones, raw cocoa, Indian spices and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's immensely refined and seamless, with a lively spine of acidity, ripe tannins and a long, penetrating, intensely saline finish. This beautifully balanced Canon is one of the classiest, most complete wines of the Right Bank in this vintage. Tasted four times. In the last few years, this sleeping giant has well and truly reawakened, and the 2021 vintage represents another fine success for Nicolas Audebert and his team. Extensive replanting between 1996 and 2003, overseen by Audebert's predecessor, John Kolasa, saw some 50% of the estate's 22 hectares replaced. The fact that these vines are now arriving at full maturity surely goes some way to accounting for Canon's contemporary renaissance. Now, the team is working on restructuring the rest, combining massal selections and clones. Viticulture is thoughtful, with cover crops across the estate, and the terroir itself is relatively homogeneous: solid limestone covered by some 0.25 to 0.7 meters of clay, with a more or less uniform exposition on Saint-Émilion's plateau. There's also one small parcel in the town itself and another by Berliquet. Today, the vineyard is planted with about 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, and there are no plans to radically alter that. Winemaking privileges finesse over power, though a certain richness and texture can be taken for granted with a site like this, and maturation is in 50% new oak (mostly from Taransaud, Demptos, Sylvain and Quintessence). 94-96/100. William Kelley.

Dark chocolate, perfume, violets, wild flowers and bramble berries on the nose, so much going on aromatically. Lovely succulence straight away, the bright acidity giving a mouthwatering effect and really delivering in terms of vibrant and lively fruit forwardness but with these lovely edges of graphite, slate, bitter chocolate, cream and salinity. So elegant and so refined as well as super stylish. I also love the cooling menthol Cabernet aspects you get all the way through and on the long finish. This has real class, but also an effortless quality to it that is so remarkable. One of the most memorable wines of the vintage! 3.37pH. Both Canon, Rauzan-Segla and Berliquet are excellent achievements this year. 2026-2045. Georgina Hindle.

Couleur sombre, intense et pourpre. Nez très aromatique, pur, au fruité mûr. Caressant à l'attaque, très fruité en milieu de bouche, avec un joli goût de fruits et de fleurs, le vin tient en finale, savoureux, fondant, long, avec une minutie tactile fascinante dans le déroulé. Assemblage : 71 % merlot, 29 % cabernet franc. Degré d'alcool : 13°5 - pH : 3,37. Rendement : 40 hl/ha.

Barrel Sample. Red and black fruits mingle with the firm structure of this dense wine. The tannins are solid while the ripe berry flavors show well against the wine's richness. Roger Voss.