Château Canon 2018

Château Canon 2018 — Saint-Émilion

This Château Canon 2018 embodies one of the most refined, profound and velvety expressions of the limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion. A Premier Grand Cru Classé with a style of great purity, Canon combines the sensuality of Merlot, the elegance of Cabernet Franc and the mineral freshness of great limestone terroirs: black cherry, Morello cherry, red plum, ripe raspberry, blackberry, violet, rose, graphite, chalk, liquorice, cocoa, sweet spices, fine cedar and a long saline finish.

Château Canon is among the most prestigious estates of Saint-Émilion, renowned for wines of great elegance, silky texture and remarkable ageing capacity. The 2018 vintage, solar, generous and concentrated in Bordeaux, gives here a wine of great aromatic richness, driven by ripe fruit, polished tannins and limestone tension that preserves balance. The wine offers a precise, profound and harmonious reading of the vintage, while retaining very fine ageing potential.

Terroir: Saint-Émilion, limestone plateau and Right Bank elegance

The vineyard of Château Canon lies on the limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion, one of the most sought-after terroirs on Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Limestone and clay-limestone soils bring natural freshness, mineral tension and a very distinctive texture, at once dense, fine and elongated.

Canon’s style is distinguished by its balance between fruit depth, floral finesse and limestone energy. Merlot brings flesh, velvet, plum, cherry and sensuality; Cabernet Franc contributes precision, freshness, floral notes and structure. In the 2018, vintage ripeness reinforces the richness and density of fruit, while the terroir preserves tension, purity and great clarity.

Tasting notes

Appearance: deep purple slowly evolving towards garnet, bright, dense and still very sustained. Its evolution is gradually beginning to reveal more nuance, while preserving brilliance, visual freshness and depth.

Nose: deep, ripe and highly expressive, with black cherry, Morello cherry, red plum, ripe raspberry, blackberry, fresh black fruits, violet, rose, graphite, chalk, liquorice and cocoa. With aeration, nuances of fine cedar, sweet spices, mocha, blond tobacco, noble earth, light truffle, fresh mint and limestone minerality may appear.

Palate: broad, velvety, dense and beautifully balanced, with ripe fruit carried by clear limestone freshness. Flavours of black cherry, Morello cherry, plum, blackberry, raspberry, liquorice, cocoa, graphite, chalk and spices unfold with intensity and elegance, supported by fine, ripe and polished tannins. The finish is very long, saline, mineral and delicately spicy, with an impression of velvet, depth and great Saint-Émilion nobility.

Expression of the 2018 vintage

The 2018 vintage in Bordeaux produced ripe, concentrated and generous wines, with marked fruit richness and often very silky textures. In Saint-Émilion, the best crus from limestone terroirs were able to combine this ripeness with fine freshness, refined tannins and important ageing capacity. At Canon, this year particularly highlights the wine’s velvet, depth and precision.

Today, this Château Canon 2018 remains still young but can already impress through its ripe fruit, breadth and balance after careful aeration. With time, it will gain complexity around notes of truffle, fine leather, tobacco, cocoa, cedar, forest floor, melted spices and chalky minerality, while preserving the depth of red and black fruit.