Chateau Canon (Futures Pre-Sale) 2009

Professional Ratings

• 99 Jeb Dunnuck
  The 2009 Chateau Canon is brilliant in every regard and certainly one of the finest wines from this estate I've ever tasted. Based on 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet from a Grand Cru terroir located on the upper, limestone-driven plateau outside of the village of Saint-Emilion, it’s still youthfully ruby-colored and boasts a beautiful perfume of blackberries, black raspberries, white flowers, chalky minerality, truffle, and dried flowers. Firing on all cylinders, with incredible complexity and sweetness in its aromatics, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a multi-dimensional texture, building tannins, and a finish that won't quit.
• 98 Wine Spectator
  What a gorgeous nose, with sweet and delicate fruits such as sliced plums that turn to milk chocolate and flowers. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and a long, long finish. You want to drink this right away. 75 percent Merlot and 25 percent Cabernet Franc.
  Barrel Sample: 95-98 Points
• 96 James Suckling
  Aromas of nuts, spices, chocolate powder, then changes to fruits and flowers. Fascinating. Full body, with silky tannins and a wonderful intensity and super polished tannins with a long, long finish. Super refined. Best Canon in years. Try in 2016.
• 95 Wine Enthusiast
  Hugely dense, foursquare wine with great fruit and the purest tannins. Chocolate and coffee predominate at the same time as sweet tannins and acidity. A wine that combines charm with power.
• 94 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The finest Canon since the 1982, the 2009 (75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc) reveals a dense blue/purple color along with a classic nose of chalk dust, blueberries, black raspberries, black currants and a touch of wood smoke. Medium to full-bodied, elegant and loaded with an inner framework of minerality and moderately high tannins, this backward, but stylish, concentrated Canon will benefit from 7-8 years of cellaring and last for three decades.
• 93 Decanter
  The director of Canon in 2009 was John Kolasa, a less deft touch perhaps than Nicolas Audebert today, but still making some great wines. This has ripe fruits and a generous attack. It's still very young but there are hints of a wine that's starting to evolve, with moments of tobacco and leather. The mouthwatering juiciness through the back half of the palate is really appetising, and although it's less precise than a Canon of today, you can certainly see all the building blocks here. It has a slightly savoury quality to the fruit, not displaying the excess of some St-Emilions in this vintage. A good quality wine, this is entering its drinking window but has plenty of time left.