2021 Château Canon, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2021 Château Canon, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20218008831
Prices start from £112.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2021 Château Canon, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

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Merlot 71%, Cabernet Franc 29%

A beautiful energy runs through this wine, from both the limestone (on which 90% of the vines are grown) and the precision that Nicolas Audebert’s team apply to the viticulture. Testament to that skill, every parcel of the main vineyard was used for the grand vin this year; the second wine comes from the lower slopes. The overall impression is of effortless grace. The wine has richness and density, but you don’t feel it. With every swirl, superb aromas emerge: nutmeg, cinnamon, every colour of berry and something of cool stone. Drink 2027-2045. 

Our score: 18.5/20

Berry Bros. & Rudd (Apr 2022)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous92-94/100

The 2021 Canon was picked September 16 to October 6 and matured in 50% new oak for a planned 16–18 months. Around 70% of the vineyard produced the normal yield, which underwent a 50% deselection, yet it still yielded 40hL/ha because the vines did not suffer stress. After mildew, any bunches that showed damage on the stems were removed. Nicolas Audebert told me that there was no concentration or saignée, just a little chaptalization (around 0.5–1.0%, depending on the tank). This has quite a concentrated bouquet of opulent dark cherries, blueberry, violet and just a hint of camphor. The palate is medium-bodied and pliant, with gentle grip, saturated tannins and a judicious touch of spice toward the compact finish. While recent top-flight vintages may well eclipse this Canon, it still stands as a fine addition to the recent roster.

Drink 2030 - 2060

Neal Martin, vinous.com, (May 2022) Read more

Jane Anson96/100

Gorgeous bright plum colour with violet reflections. The epitome of careful, precise, well-spliced winemaking. Sibling estate Berliquet has perhaps more immediate charm, because there is more power running through it, but this is just elegance and finesse personified. Red cherry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, slate, saffron, oyster shell, they have teased out layers of complexity that were not easy to find in the vintage, and there is length also, with pummice stone salinity scraping across the palate. It's subtle, and it's not at the heights of a 2019 Canon, but this will not be out of place in a vertical of the estate. Tasted twice. 50% new oak, 40hl/h yield, harvest September 16 to October 8. Thomas Duclos consultant.

Drink 2027 - 2044

Jane Anson, janeanson.com (May 2022) Read more

Wine Advocate94-96/100

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.

William Kelley, Wine Advocate (Apr 2022) Read more

Jancis Robinson MW17/20

Reserved at present. Floral notes as the wine opens. Texturally very elegant, the tannins extremely polished and fine. Compact, concise. Less wow this year but clean and refreshing and enough fruit for ageing.

James Lawther, jancisrobinson.com (May 2022) Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Canon

Chateau Canon

Château Canon, a famous St.Emilion property is named after Jacques Kanon who bought the estate in 1760. Since 1996 it has been owned by Chanel, who also owns Château Rauzan-Ségla in Margaux.

Located in the centre of the St.Emilion appellation, to the south-west of St-Emilion town, Canon has 18 hectares of vineyards split between the limestone plateau and the clay/loam côtes. They are planted with 55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Franc. Vinification is traditional: up to 20 days in temperature-controlled wooden vats followed by 18 months' maturation in oak barrels (70% new).

This wine needs cellaring to show at its best and mature Canon reeks of the soft, buttery Merlot grape as only the very top St-Emilions and Pomerols can. It is classified as a 1er Grand Cru Classé (B).

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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