The 2016 Pontet-Canet is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it explodes from the glass with bombastic creme de cassis, stewed plums, and blueberry preserves notes, giving way to subtle notions of licorice, lilacs, and damp soil plus a waft of truffles. Full-bodied, it is super concentrated with a lovely line of freshness and ripe, firm, grainy tannins, finishing very long and with amazing purity.

The 2016 Pontet-Canet is absolutely breathtaking. Powerful, ample and racy in the glass, the 2016 is one of the most exquisitely well-balanced young Pontet-Canets I can remember tasting. Savory, high-toned aromatics and brisk mineral notes lend energy and delineation as this vivid wonderfully alive wine opens up in the glass. The flavors are dark and incisive, but it is the wine's total sense of harmony that is most compelling. All of the elements are simply in the right place. The 2016 is tremendous. It's as simple as that. As is often the case, Pontet-Canet is one of the most singular wines in Bordeaux. Alfred Tesseron could have chosen to play things safe when he took over the management of the estate in the mid-1990s. Instead, he chose a very different path. No proprietor in Bordeaux has taken more risks over the last two decades than Alfred Tesseron. A commitment to biodynamic farming, sustainability across the entire estate more broadly, and the adoption of new concepts for Bordeaux, such as aging a portion of the wine in terra cotta, set Pontet-Canet apart from other properties in Pauillac and the Left Bank. Not surprisingly, the wine is also starkly different from the wines of neighboring estates. (AG)

Top wine of the vertical. Deep, violet hue. Even if the nose is slightly closed, initially, what pure fruit! A degree higher in alcohol than the 2015, but superb balance. The pristine fruit, fine-grained tannins, focus and precision lead to an outstanding finish, surpassing even the 2010. It has the sumptuousness of the 2015, but the arc and tension of the 2010.Great capacity for ageing. Aged 50% new oak , 35% amphora. (PK)