Château Canon 2023

This is so elegant and sophisticated already, with a really electric presence and length that goes on and on. It's medium- to full-bodied with an intensity of tannins. It remains weightless and energetic. The pH is 3.41, making this a vivid and lively wine. Currant, orange and stone. Sea salt, too. The limestone soils created a unique wine here in 2023. A blend of 71% merlot and 29% cabernet franc.

70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc Canon immediately evokes the harmony and pleasure of wine in a context of subtlety and authenticity, reminding us that, even if it is magnified by our words and our taste buds, it is above all a wine that simply asks to be savoured! The Canon's bouquet is delicate but decisive, with filigree precision. The silky, elegant, vinous logic of the first impression is impressive. The wine has character, charm, breadth and the ability to reveal many details in a broad context. A relevant, precise wine, from the nose to the finish. If excellence can take shape with humility, we begin to dream of a haven of peace where only pleasure is king! 2028-2053

Dark, crimson and lively colour. Intense, fine, clean, fruity, subtle and noble nose. Meticulous on the entry, then delicately fat, with class in the touch and a background of complex flavours, all at once meticulous, distinguished and profound, the wine flows slowly into the finish, constant in its unfolding, pure and noble. It's superb. It's Canon! Blend: 71% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol content: 14° - pH: 3.41. Pressed wine: 8%. Yield: 45 hl/ha. Aged in 50% new oak, including 3 foudres.

Wafting from the glass with aromas of mulberries and raspberries mingled with spices, rose petals, licorice and violets, the 2023 Canon is another brilliant wine from a property whose excellence can almost be taken for granted. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's seamless and concentrated, its vibrant core of fruit framed by sweet, powdery tannins and girdled by lively acids, concluding with a long, mineral finish. As I've written before, Château Canon was once something of a sleeping giant, but today it has well and truly reawakened. Extensive replanting between 1996 and 2003, overseen by Nicolas 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). Today, the focus is on increasing precision and refinement, rather than revolution. And well it might be, for why change a winning team?