Pontet-Canet has become the most fashionable, if not the most sought after, wine of its appellation. This is no mean feat given that we are speaking of Pauillac, a bastion of the finest wines of the Médoc, stylistically bound to an assertive kit of tannin, maritime freshness and a prodigious capacity to age. Of course the commune is also home to Châteaux Lafite, Latour and neighbour Mouton-Rothschild, each a Premier Grand Cru Classé or First Growth, juxtaposed against Pontet-Canet’s comparatively meagre Fifth Growth standing. Yet times today are not what they once were, as Pontet-Canet so stridently asserts. As the pre-eminent commentator on Bordeaux, Jane Anson notes, Pontet-Canet is ‘everybody’s favourite Super Second story.’

 

The recent success of the Château can largely be attributed to the prescience of the owners since 1975, the Tesseron family. In particular, Alfred Tesseron, who took over from his father Guy in 1994 before handing the reins more recently to daughter Justine, whom he works alongside in a more subdued role. They are only the third owners in the estate’s history, a rarity in Bordeaux. I have been fortunate enough to conduct tastings and client dinners with both and can assuredly say that there are no kinder folk in the world of wine. Jean-Michel Comme was, until May 2020, the technical director, casting an orb of considerable influence over the holistic nature of the viticulture as an evangelist for biodynamics and the considered approach to winemaking required to articulate its ecological benefits. Michel Rolland is employed as a consultant, although almost all decisions are made by the in-house team.

While Pontet-Canet’s wines were always burly, layered and forthright, they lacked the refinement that Tesseron’s assiduous attention to detail and Comme's prescience have engendered, particularly the ongoing insistence that viticulture be returned to one of low impact, regenerative principles, much like their forefathers had practised. In a region that is home to some of the most expensive wines on earth, this is an ethical approach, albeit, one fraught with considerable financial risk. Thanks to Tesseron’s vision, however, Pontet-Canet is the gold standard for sustainable bonafides in Bordeaux today, its vineyards certified firstly organic (Ecocert), and then biodynamic (Biodyvin and Demeter), since 2010.

The last time the estate opted to use chemicals was the wet 2007 vintage, to considerable success, although Comme swore they would never treat again. Pontet Canet has stuck to their guns. As a result the estate lost more than half its potential volume in 2018 due to mildew. As Tesseron declares, ‘I am not a winemaker. My team members are not winemakers either. As most of the work is done in the vineyards, we are growers. Our success and achievements at Pontet-Canet are due to our efforts in the vineyards, not the winemaking. At the end of the day, our goal is to produce unique vintages of Pontet-Canet that are for drinking, not just for wine tasting.’

This staunch philosophy means that there are incremental shifts in philosophy and viticulture each year to the extent that, as Anson suggests, it is sometimes hard to keep up. 2017, for example, saw the arrival of new 40 hectolitre cement vats made from the recycled rubble of 2005’s cellar extension. They are half the size of the previous ones and fit to handle one third of the fermentation volumes, while the remainder of the wine is made in 900 litre amphorae, hewn of the limestone and gravel soils of the estate, together with traditional wooden vats. There is a shift away from electricity altogether, with the use of geothermal power, sourced from 76 pits dug to a depth of 100 metres. Subsequently, extraction is achieved by way of manual punchdowns only. Sorting is done by hand, rather than by the increasingly ubiquitous vibrating table. The end result is an ageing regime akin to 50 percent new oak, 35 percent concrete, and 15 percent year-old barrels, with analyses made only after the wine has been finished. Total production is circa 25,000 cases. A second wine, known as Les Hauts de Pontet was created in 1982. Production ceased after the 2012 vintage when the wine was refused appellation status due to its light, frisky style. It was deemed ‘atypical’, and yet the goals of the winemaking regime—a quest for freshness— were well and truly achieved.

The vineyard is made up of 62 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 32 percent Merlot, four percent Cabernet Franc percent, and a mere two percent Petit Verdot, planted on gravels over a limestone substrata to a density of 9,500 vines per hectare. The average age of the vines is 45 years. Yields are controlled by careful pruning and tilling, rather than any dropping of fruit, while all biodynamic treatments are prepared on site. Five horses are used in the vineyards to minimise compaction, turning over the soils for aeration. Seldom do they tread the same spot twice. They are complemented by three cows and a donkey. This approach has clearly influenced the neighbours, with Châteaux Latour, Margaux and Clinet, across the river in Pomerol, all adopting horses.

So what effect has all of this had on the wines? In one word, energy! The estate is easily a Super Second as Anson alludes, yet the sturdy carapace of tannins that so long defined the wines has lost some of its muscularity, replaced by transparent glints of cassis and slate, and an underbelly of mineral pungency. Anson suggests that some recent vintages have veered closer to a Saint Julien than a Pauillac, yet this is a wine of pixelated detail that remains, no matter what, a fidelitous expression to the gravelly tannins of the commune. Oak ageing has proven beneficial to elongate and polymerise them.

The best vintages of Pontet-Canet include 2008, 2009 and 2010, before a recent spurt of great success from the 2015 vintage onwards, auguring positively for a grand future ahead.