Château Pontet Canet 2017 Pauillac 5e Grand Cru Classé

Robert Parker
96-98/100 punten

Blended of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2017 Pontet-Canet opens with vibrant wild blueberries, black raspberries and crushed plums with notions of cinnamon stick, violets, unsmoked cigars and pencil lead plus wafts of roses, lavender and tilled black soil. Medium-bodied with very fine, incredibly plush tannins, it is deliciously savory in the mouth, with wonderful freshness and spectacular energy delivering many layers, resulting in a very long, mineral-laced finish. Pontet-Canet is situated near enough to the estuary in Pauillac that it only received minor losses from the frosts in 2017. This vintage, for the first time, 30% of the production was fermented in a brand-new vat room containing 32 custom-built, 40-hectoliter concrete tanks. These are smaller tanks, made entirely of soil coming from Pontet-Canet, with no lining although they do have cooling rings inside. Along with the certified organic and biodynamic principles already practiced in the vineyards since 2005, Alfred Tesseron continues to strive toward the least invasive, most sustainable means of coaxing the very best from the land and the vines.