Canon 2018

The Grand Vin is the 2018 Château Canon, which is based on 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc brought up in 52% new French oak. Its incredible bouquet delivers richness paired with amazing freshness and precision, offering loads of crème de cassis and darker berry fruits intermixed with classic Saint-Emilion chalky minerality, graphite, scorched earth, and spring flowers. Gorgeous on the palate as well, with medium to full-bodied richness, ultra-fine tannins, flawless balance, and again, this wonderful sense of freshness paired with ample richness, it needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will evolve for 30+ years. The 2009 and 2015 are still my favorite vintages of this wine, but this is up there with the best of them.

Pretty closed up right now, this is full of latent energy. It's extremely powerful and precise, with poise and tension but also with generosity and density, yet it errs on the side of not giving much away rather than giving too much. You have to give it time in the glass for those cool blueberry, bilberry and tightly spiced notes to come to the fore. The stunning texture is clear but the aromatics take their time. This is a wine that carries its finesse with great skill, and they have done a brilliant job of allowing this aspect to shine amongst the heat of the vintage, allowing the density to inch deeper with every minute in the glass. This wine just gets better and better, Harvest ran from 7 September to 9 October, the longest ever here, with no pressure of rot. 42hl/ha yield. Thomas Duclos consults.Drinking Window 2027 - 2043

Tasted blind. Quite pale; quite a simple colour. Tea-leaf aroma. Not that concentrated but nicely balanced. Very fresh – as though it’s trying to play that card! Canon? Lots on the finish. 14.5%Drink 2027 – 2045

Deep purple with bright rim. Lovely Cabernet Franc fragrance of stony/mineral pure black fruit, both restrained in character and yet aromatic. Juicy and fresh on the palate, full of energy and great finesse in the tannins. Dark, refined beauty with a tiny hint of dark chocolate on the finish. Great persistence and cool subtlety. So fresh and juicy, pure and precise. Lightly chalky tannins on the finish, no sign of the alcohol and the tannins have an underlying power. 'Les tannins reactifs', as technical director Nicolas Audebert calls them (I didn't know what he meant either), give a mouth-watering finish. Silky freshness and elegance.Drink 2025-2038

Features a gorgeous core of plum and black currant fruit, deeply inlaid with tobacco notes and chalky minerality. Everything melds wonderfully through the finish, which is refined in feel.

A very detailed Canon with super-ripe fruit but also flashes of greenness and beautiful complexity, too. The oak is under control and the length is minutes long. Concentrated and also quite closed right now, this will open beautifully over 20-30 years and I expect it to gather pace as it goes.

The 2018 Canon was picked from 7 September and finished 9 October. It has an immediate bouquet with intense black fruit, crushed limestone, pressed iris flower and a soupçon of crème de cassis. It retains the freshness and delineation one seeks from this Saint-Émilion. The palate is beautifully textured on the entry: velvety tannin, fine acidity, a wine that evokes that oft used "iron fist in a velvet glove" phrase. It fans out wonderfully on the finish. This is a deeply impressive Canon that might be the best since the 2015. Brilliant. 2024 - 2055

This is a dense and focused Canon with beautiful blackberry, almond and hazelnut character. Vivid and lifted. It’s compact and complete with tannins that melt into the center palate and then build at the end. Full-bodied yet reserved and driven. A superb and focused wine. Classy all the way. New 1955?

The 2018 Canon is blended of 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc, with a pH of 3.69 and 14% alcohol. Deep purple-black in color, it comes sashaying out of the glass with glamorous notes of cinnamon stick, baked blackberries, black cherry compote and licorice plus an undercurrent of plum preserves and smoked meats and, with coaxing, reveals a lovely floral signature of candied violets and red roses. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wonderfully soft-spoken, whispering of fragrant floral and earthy scents beneath a core of profound, mouth-coating black and blue fruits, draped in a high level of super ripe, plush tannins, finishing with amazing freshness and perfume with loads of mineral sparks emerging.

Reminding me of a slightly fresher, more focused version of the 2009, the 2018 Château Canon boasts a deep ruby/purple color as well as awesome minerality in its smoked red and black fruits, graphite, cocoa, scorched earth, and spice box driven aromas and flavors. Deep, full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and structured, this is a powerful Canon that’s going to benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and keep for decades. The 2018 is a blend of 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc that hit 14% natural alcohol (the pH is 3.66) and is still aging in 52% new French oak. Tasted twice.