Ch. Pontet-Canet
5th Growth Grand Cru Classe
Pauillac
2009

The producer

A rather good quality estate for decades, Pontet-Canet has been on a continual climb up the quality ladder and has taken great leaps in the 2000s. Now fully embracing biodynamics, including horse-ploughed vineyards – which really shows in the wines – roughly two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon, and the remainder Merlot with small portions of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – which have softened and refined over the last couple of decades.

The majority of the 78 hectare of vineyards surround the chateau in the south of Pauillac, and are neighbouring Chateaux Mouton-Rothschild and d’Armailhac, close to Pauillac’s border with St-Julien. Owned by the Tesseron Cognac family since 1975, Pontet-Canet continues to perform way above its Fifth Growth status!

The wine

Pontet Canet’s Grand Vin is a blend of minimum 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, complemented by Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. The average age of vineyard is 50 years and includes some old vines dating back to the 1940s. Fermentation takes place in wooden vats with indigenous yeast, and is followed by four weeks of maceration, and finally ageing for 16-18 months, in 50% new oak barrels, 35% concrete amphorae, and 15% in older barrels. A wine of great depth, precise and silky tannins, and mineral length, Pontet Canet has rich and succulent fruit and a natural refinement. Although a fifth growth by classification, Pontet Canet is in recent years often referred to as of super-second status, even if sometimes slightly closer to St-Julien in style.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.