2009 Château Canon St.-Émilion 1er Grand Cru Classé 750 ml

The 99-point 2009 Château Canon St.-Émilion 1er Grand Cru Classé is just about perfect. Whether you’re a Bordeaux collector looking to stock your cellar for the future, or a life-is-short red wine lover ready to indulge the moment the bottle arrives, this Right Bank beauty is primed for a starring role at the dinner table, or another 20 years of gorgeous evolution. Your pick. 

Jeb Dunnuck called the wine “brilliant in every regard” in his breathless review, and his 99-point score put it in a rarefied circle, rubbing shoulders with Cheval Blanc (100 points for $1,345) and outpacing Angélus (98+ for $448). You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better bargain for elite Right Bank Bordeaux in the outstanding 2009 vintage.

Showing a deep garnet color after ten years of slumber in the Canon cellars, the 2009 opens up to flavors of dried plums, fresh blackberry, leather, tobacco, and toast, accented by rosehips, olives, and clove. Still incredibly youthful and energetic, its palate is laden with ripe plum, tobacco, and tilled earth flavors, with a hint of flint on the long, seductive finish. It’s drinking beautifully now, but has so much life left in it that each sip will have you reveling in the moment, and thinking of the wine’s incredible future. 

Château Canon has a long history, dating back to its founding as a 30-acre clos (enclosed vineyard) by privateer Jacques Kanon. It’s located on the prestigious limestone hillsides known as the côtes, which are known for producing the region’s top wines: reds of early austerity and restraint that blossom into power and complexity. Robert Parker himself even classified Canon as one of just two côtes wines that could challenge Classé “A” Château Ausone for “complexity and sheer class.” 

The property’s modern era began in 1996, when it was acquired by the Wertheimer family, owners of the Chanel group. Unsurprisingly, the family has put great care and capital into the property, replanting the vineyards, and renovating the chai where the wines are aged. As a result, the property’s performance in the last two decades has been unprecedented: According to Wine Advocate, eleven of the top twelve Canon wines of all time come from the last decade and a half.

Of course, the 2009 stands alone, with Jeb Dunnuck calling it the finest he’s ever tasted from the estate. This decade-aged Right Bank beauty comes within a hairsbreadth of perfection at well under $200, and will be a cellar score to last the next 20-30 years—or the star of the show the night it arrives.