Canon la Gaffelière 2016

Bright dark crimson. Smooth and sweet – in fact almost cocoa flavoured. Mouth-filling. Not all that much tannin but a very pleasurable drink. No rough edges. Hint of pencil shavings on the end.Drink 2024-2040

One of the most elegant and seamless wines in the vintage is the 2016 Canon-la-Gaffelière, a blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon brought up in 60% new French oak. This medium to full-bodied beauty has brilliant minerality as well as tons of cassis fruits, notions of spice box, cedarwood, licorice, and dried earth, silky tannins, no hard edges, and a great, great finish. It shows the purity and elegance of the vintage to a T. Drink this fabulous Saint-Emilion any time over the coming 20+ years. 2019 - 2039.

The fruit is sweet and ripe the nose has depth the mid palate generosity. There is a balancing freshness bramble in the middle but it fills out at the back with some sweet rich fruit on the finish. 2025-36

Canon La Gaffelière is exploiting a rich vein of form at the moment. This is always wonderfully perfumed and intense, with smoky, floral, cedar wood aromas, fine-grained tannins, subtle red and dark berry fruit, crunchy acidity and real energy. 2023-34

The 2016 Canon la Gaffeliere is a blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon (vines organically certified) picked from 26 September to 15 October and matured in 60% new oak. The yield is 42 hectoliters per hectare. This offers one of the most cerebral aromatics that I have encountered from this Saint Emilion estate: mineral-rich red and black fruit, quite edgy, almost flinty in style. I adore the focus of these aromas that are wired directly into the olfactory senses. The palate is very well balanced and governed by the Cabernet component. The black fruit is lifted by some lovely graphite notes that lend it a very Left Bank-like personality. It is fresh, taut and linear with a very persistent finish. Unlike other vintages of Canon la Gaffelière, I feel that this will require four to five years in bottle. As good as the 2015 last year, it might even surpass it. Drink Date 2023 - 2050

Lovely silky texture and dark fruit to this wine underlining richness and decadence. Medium to full body and a long finish.

Dark crimson. Very rich sweet nose slightly reminiscent of the 'modernist' style. Rather thick and heavy. Suffers from being tasted immediately after the superior and sophisticated Ch Canon. Rather drying end. Good effort. Sincere but a tad vieux jeu. Hint of meatiness, then slightly drying tannins but good energy.Drink 2025-2040