2009 Château Pontet-Canet Pauillac 750 ml

Located on the Pauillac plateau directly across from First Growth giant Mouton Rothschild, perhaps Château Pontet-Canet always had the raw material for greatness. But not until it was purchased in 1975 by the Tesseron family did it start to fulfill its lofty potential. Now, this estate is one of the best arguments that the 1855 classification needs a healthy reshuffling. 

One of the few biodynamic estates in Bordeaux, Pontet-Canet proves—at an amazingly affordable price for classed-growth Bordeaux—that you don’t need chemicals to reach vinous perfection in Bordeaux’s notoriously challenging climate. 

When he tasted it on release, Robert Parker called the ‘09 Pontet-Canet “a tour de force in winemaking that is capable of lasting 50 or more years.” Fast forward to early this year, when Parker’s Advocate confirmed their boss’s perfect score, calling the ‘09 “full-bodied, rich, multilayered and completely seductive.”

Whether you stocked up on 2009 Bordeaux when it was released, or waited to watch the evolution of the vintage, this is a spectacular collectors’ opportunity.

This Pontet-Canet shows the deep garnet color of a well-aged claret. Still youthful at first, with time in the glass or decanter it opens to reveal complex aromas of violets, crème de cassis, elderberry, black licorice, sandalwood, leather, and truffles. While showing beautiful tertiary development, the palate is firm and tight, with the tension and energy of the best of Bordeaux, delivering flavors of stewed cherry, earth, and cedar.

Now a decade into what’s sure to be a very long life, the 2009 Château Pontet-Canet was recently awarded 100 points by the Advocate, which puts it in the ultra-exclusive company of the few Left Bank reds that achieved perfection in ‘09, including Haut-Brion ($1082) and Latour ($1771). And we’ve got a pristine allocation, straight from the cellars in Pauillac. 

A 100-point Bordeaux for $349 would be a formidable deal on release, but with ten years of age and a second perfect 100-point score from Jeb Dunnuck, it’s irresistible: You can pop this a few days after it reaches your doorstep (let it settle after its journey and give it a good decant) or cellar it for four more decades. Either way, on the day you pull the cork, you’ll be getting a snapshot of one of the greatest Bordeaux vintages in history, for a fraction of what other classed growths command. 

Having changed hands only twice over two centuries, Château Pontet-Canet boasts a rare ownership legacy in Bordeaux. But it was the Tesserons—the family that owns Château Lafon-Rochet in St.-Eestèphe—and more specifically the leadership of Alfred Tesseron, its current proprietor, that has cemented its place in the pantheon of the best properties of Pauillac. “Throughout history farmers have been laboring, innovating, to get the most fruit possible from their land. All that interests me is what we need to do to get the best quality,” he told us, when we met with him at the estate. 

To that end, he converted their farming to organic, and later biodynamic practices, halting the use of all chemicals, and noticing a better concentration of flavors in the fruit as the years went on. His innovations didn’t stop in the vineyard. Alfred first changed the whole facility to a gravity-fed one, avoiding the use of pumps that can extract astringent seed tannins. They installed a double sorting line to ensure that only pristine berries make it into the must, and Alfred himself designed cement vats and amphorae for fermentation, drawing upon the gravel from the property itself to mix the cement, infusing the wine with the property’s terroir throughout the process. 

After all, the promise of Pontet-Canet in the cellar is its history in Pauillac, and the essence of Alfred Tesseron’s achievement to date. With projected drinkability ranges among the leading critics of up to 50 years, the Château’s 2009 bottling shows exactly why Parker’s Wine Advocate gave the ‘09 Pauillac season the highest rating ever for the region: 99 points. 

Long story short, ‘09 was as good as it gets, and it shows in the 2009 Pontet-Canet. A decade into a glorious life, this wine will cruise for decades and just get better. Every cellar could use a 100-point Bordeaux from a great vintage, and they don’t come any better than this one.