2020 - Grand Vin Château Canon Chaigneau
2020 - Grand Vin Château Canon Chaigneau
Our sensational 2020s are in bottle and available for your cellar!
2020 is 'truly exceptional, highly unique and an utterly spectacular vintage’ wrote Colin Hay, and ranks amongst the best ever here at Canon Chaigneau!
We are thrilled with the quality of our 2020. The summer was, of course, hot and sunny, after a wet spring, and we had just about the right amount of hydric stress. High sugars and potential alcohol, the fruit was dense, opulent, and juicy. It’s our first vintage 100% in charge and we increased selection (more hands on the sorting table) harvesting/ vinifying parcel by parcel also for the first time ever. We harvested over 17 days ensuring optimal maturity. We have a few parcels on very thick and gluey dense clay. We had quite a bit of juice, total yields of around 53 hl and performed a saignée of around 5% for the first time. Vinification in 44-153 HL cement cuves and a selection made it into 20 new and 20 one-year-old 500 litre barrels, from Sylvain, Taransaud and Demptos. The grand vin includes 2% of the press wine, which we pressed very gently this year.
Tasting Notes:
A wine for the ages. Rich, opulent and quite simply exceptional.
Wine Profile:
Fruitness: 3/5
(1 = earthy, 5 = fruity)
Body: 4/5
(1 = Light Body, 5 = Heavy Body)
Aroma:
Plum
Chocolate
Leather
Food Pairing:
Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Blackberry Reduction, Beef Wellington with a Mushroom Duxelles, Duck Breast with Cherry and Red Wine Sauce, Wild Mushroom Risotto with Truffle Oil, Smoked Gouda and Caramelized Onion Tart
- ’The 2020 Canon-Chaigneau is fascinating to taste next to the 8a, as it really shows the role oak plays in adding support to a wine. Ample and expressive from the start, Canon-Chaigneau is gorgeous. Black cherry, plum, chocolate and leather flesh out in a gorgeous Lalande-de-Pomerol that has so much to recommend it. Terrific.’
Antonio Galloni, 92
- ‘Notes of plums and blackberries with cocoa, licorice and nut shell. Some wet earth, too. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins and a ripe core of dark berries. Lingering and chocolaty finish.’
James Suckling, 92
- ‘Chocolate-covered black cherries and plums show nicely on the nose and on the soft, silky, medium-bodied, fresh palate. You can enjoy this supple-textured, lush wine on release'
Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider, 91-93
- ‘The 2020 Château Canon Chaigneau tastes like a baby Pomerol with it’s medium to full bodied, rich, yet elegant style. Lots of black fruits, tobacco, and damp earth define the bouquet, and it’s ripe, has wonderful tannins and outstanding balance. It’s a hidden gem'
Jeb Dunnuck, 91-93
- ‘This is lovely, well filled out through the mid palate, plenty of Lalande-de-Pomerol ease. There is austerity at this point, but also personality, with spiced berry fruits, touches of black chocolate, sage and dried rosemary. A Lalande to look out for'
Jane Anson, 91
- ‘This is bigger and richer on the nose…– with a lovely half-roasted coffee bean element alongside the wild herbs, cracked black peppercorns, cassis, dark berry and stone fruit. It is deeper and glossier too, more opulent, more dense and compact… fine-grained tannins … impressive length and sense of focused precision….saline-ferrous minerality… rapid progression in the precision of the wine-making and the quality of the tannin management'
Colin Hay, 90-92+
Gold Medal Concours Terre de vins.
"This is a wine you’ll tell people about for years to come. And you can enjoy for years to come too. A wonderful expression of the quality of the fabulous 2020 vintage, with opulence balanced by freshness, and rich, fine, serious tannins."
A Unique Terroir
The Néac plateau. One of the finest wines of the appellation, and one of the best value wines in France - medium bodied, not over extracted, complex, suave & extremely drinkable, typically with notes of truffle, black fruits, spice and cacao.
A Legendary Winemaker
Thierry Garnaud was maître de chai at Cheval Blanc from 1988 – 2018, responsible for such 100 Point Legends as the 1990, '98, 2000, '03, '05, '06, '08, '10, '15 & 2016.
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