Château Pontet-Canet 2020

Druvor

65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc og 2% Petit Verdot.

Tasting note

'While Justine Tesseron declined my request to taste at the property, I was able to acquire a bottle of the 2020 Pontet-Canet for review. The wine starts strong, wafting from the glass with attractive aromas of cherries, sweet berries and plum preserve mingled with lilac and licorice, but that's followed by a medium to full-bodied, firm and extracted palate that lacks the amplitude and flesh to conceal the rather drying tannins which dominate the earthy finish. It's an open secret among Bordeaux insiders that this estate—which has benefited from such significant and laudable investments and which was on such an upward trajectory through 2011—has been a perplexingly erratic performer since 2012, intermingling successful vintages with relative failures, and the 2020 only confirms that. While the 2020 isn't by any means a flawed wine, and time may well be kind to it, it doesn't transcend this estate's fifth growth status, even if this château's terroir clearly has the potential to.'

“The difference in our wine is really how we work in the vineyard,” said Justine Tesseron, who now works very closely with her father Alfred Tesseron, owner of Château Pontet-Canet. “Every year we go to another level. First, we have great terroir. My grandfather was avant-garde when he chose our site. Then with the approach my father developed—biodynamics. But, as you know, every year is challenging because of the conditions. In 2018, we lost two-thirds of production because of mildew. In 2020 we were very scared. We didn’t want to have the same situation. Our vineyard people were very motivated. We didn’t miss any treatments—even on Saturday and Sunday. We HAD to be in the vineyard. Everyone was there. In the end, we didn’t lose any crops due to mildew. We kept it contained and it did not spread to the grapes.” “It was also challenging because of the very warm, dry days,” she added. “We had a bit of drought. But all the treatments we use, based on plants, have meant that the vineyard is in good balance. It was not too much affected by the drought. At Pontet-Canet we don’t deleaf or do green harvest. The leaves protected the grapes.” I asked Justine about the rains that occurred in mid-August—85 millimeters (3.35 inches)—nearly a month after the start of veraison. She said, “Yes, I think we managed the rain well. Mathieu Bessonnet, our technical director, decided to leave the grass growing between the rows this year, in anticipation of water. The grass was quite high. It managed to soak up a lot of the water. The berries were in good condition afterwards. We did not get dilution.” In the end, Pontet-Canet came through with yields that were just slightly lower than 2019, which was a relatively generous year for this estate. And the wine? Absolutely singular. Absolutely Pontet-Canet.

Robert Parker The Wine Advocate

Årgången 2020

Årgången 2020 kommer att komma ihåg för den tidiga utvecklingen av vinstockarna. Mellan oktober 2019 och februari 2020 bidrog vissa episoder av regn till att skapa tillräckliga vattenreserver. En varm vår med kraftiga regn gynnade tidig men heterogen knoppsprängning. Ändå begränsades denna heterogenitet av arbete på jorden, vilket gjorde att den värmdes upp snabbare. Medan de varma temperaturerna och kraftiga nederbörden i april väckte oro för vinrankornas hälsa, möjliggjorde de goda väderförhållandena i mitten av maj en snabb och jämn blomning. Månaderna juni och juli var extremt torra (5 mm nederbörd på 55 dagar), vilket orsakade betydande vattenstress. På grund av detta torra väder tillsammans med kyliga temperaturer, utfördes en noggrann bladstrippning på den östra sidan av vingården (där solen går upp), för att uppmuntra fenolsyntesen av druvorna. Regniga dagar i början av augusti återupplivade druvornas mognadsprocess. Vingårdens fantastiska läge och vingårdsteamens arbete minimerade hälsoriskerna i samband med hög luftfuktighet och värme. Den indiska sommaren fram till skörden möjliggjorde en optimal mognad av druvorna. Med hänsyn till årgångens brådska och de höga temperaturerna i september togs beslutet att skörda tidigt, för att bevara druvornas spänning och täthet.