A final blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, the 2014 Pontet-Canet is brilliant stuff. I was able to taste this wine from barrel as well as multiple times from bottle, both at the estate and from a bottle purchased in the United States. It offers a sensational bouquet of crème de cassis, black raspberries, tobacco leaf, and minerals, as well as an unmistakable Pauillac lead pencil character that I just adore. Possessing full-bodied richness, a rounded, surprisingly opulent, sexy texture, awesome purity, and sweet, succulent tannin, it’s a sensational 2014 that might just surpass what they accomplished in 2015. This is a 2014 you won’t regret buying in bulk as it’s going to keep for 2–3 decades and be drinkable for the vast majority of it. Bravo to Alfred Tesseron and his team!

This delivers a notable menthol note, showing an ample core of well-steeped blackberry, plum and black currant fruit. A bright anise streak checks in on the back end, with a slightly loamy structure imparting a broad feel through the finish. Needs to pull together a bit more, but the fruit is there. Best from 2020 through 2030.

The 2014 Pontet-Canet seems to have put on quite a bit of weight and volume since I first tasted it from barrel. Ripe, juicy tannins wrap around a core of intense dark cherry, plum, spice, lavender and tobacco. Today, it is the wine’s sheer intensity and vertical structure that stands out. I wouldn’t dream of touching a bottle until at least age ten, and even that is almost certainly not going to be enough time for the 2014 to show the full breadth of its potential. The transformation the 2014 has undergone from a delicate, nuanced Pauillac to a wine of depth is quite remarkable. Tasted three times. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, vinified in equal parts cement and oak and aged in a combination of 50% new oak, 35% amphora and 15% once used barrels. This is a gorgeous wine from the Tesseron family and the team led by Technical Director Jean-Michel Comme.

A stunning wine for this vintage although it’s still a bit shy on the nose (more spice than fruit showing than now). There’s wet earth, too, but on the palate it’s bursting with ripe yet subtle flavors. Very long and complex finish that goes on and on.

The 2014 Pontet-Canet, now in bottle, was tasted twice during my trip to Bordeaux. It has an attractive bouquet: graphite-tinged black fruit, incense and violets, perhaps a little more hedonistic than I envisaged when I tasted it from barrel. The palate is medium-bodied with tensile tannin thanks to the keen line of acidity. I like the precision of this Pontet-Canet. It feels linear and correct, pencil-lead notes developing toward the second half, more quintessentially Pauillac than previous vintages, with what you might describe as a classic Pauillac finish that retains the focus that I remarked upon from barrel. Tasted February 2017.