2015 Canon, St-Emilion (Pre-Arrival, Elsewhere $300+)

Seductive. The nose draws you in deep: It’s like staring into a well of pristine dark cherries, dark plums, blackberries and mulberries. All the oak is perfectly subsumed. The palate’s flawless with immense depth and power and it’s so balanced as to appear to float. Immaculate fresh dark-berry and plum flavors. Silky and deep, ribbon-like finish. Perfect. *2018 Wine of the Year* (2/2018)

The 2015 Canon was a benchmark wine that seemed to revitalize this historic estate. I was crossing my fingers that it would not disappoint in bottle and I am glad to say that it delivers the goods. It has a very intense bouquet (just as it showed out of barrel) with laser-like precision offering wild strawberry, raspberry preserve, wet limestone and hints of truffle. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, clean and fresh with pure black and red fruit whose every atom appears infused with minerals. The mouth is tingling long after the wine has exited and your brain is thinking … when is the next sip coming? It is frankly heads and shoulders above almost every Saint Émilion this vintage, to reaffirm, a benchmark for this historic estate that will give pleasure to many over the coming years. Astonishing. (NM) (2/2018)

From the very beginning, the 2015 Canon has made an eloquent case for itself as one of the wines of the vintage. Multiple tastings from bottle only confirm what several early tastings hinted at: the 2015 Canon is simply extraordinary in every way. Sumptuous and exotic, with no hard edges and exceptional balance, the 2015 grabs hold of all the senses and never lets up. A rush of red fruit intermingled with floral notes, spice and smoke notes effortlessly runs up the wine's vertical structure as the 2015 thrills with every twist and turn. The 2015 Canon is a rare wine that is both hedonistic and intellectual - well, maybe it is a bit more hedonistic-leaning. It doesn't matter. Don't miss it. This 2015 is masterpiece from General Manager Nicolas Auderbert and his team at Canon. (AG) (2/2018)

One of the wines of the vintage is the 2015 Château Canon which is 72% Merlot and 28% Cabernet Franc that spent 18 months in 70% new French oak. It offers a perfect example of the old saying 'iron fist in a velvet glove' and boasts gorgeous notes of black cherries, framboise, spring flowers and exotic spices. All these lead to a full-bodied, ultra-pure, seamless 2015 that marries incredible richness and depth with a sense of purity, elegance, and weightlessness that needs to be tasted to believed. This multi-dimensional, seamless 2015 needs forgotten for 4-5 years and will keep for three decades or more. Bravo! (JD) 98+ (11/2017)

This is an opulent, powerful vintage with all the fruit flavours that go with it - ripe plum, damson, black cherry and raspberry, generously textured. Just a gorgeous wine that is starting to show more subtle violet, peony, sate and campfire smoke notes but they need to be coaxed out of the glass right now. A ton of future ahead, there is no question as to quality but it has really closed down, so I would strongly suggest waiting for another 5 years, or carafe for 5 hours. Here the alcohols are higher than in the other vintages of the lineup but there is no sense of heat on the close of play. Nicolas Audebert's first full vintage. 42hl/hyield, 70% new oak, 3.78ph, a long relaxed harvest from September 14 to October 4. (7/2021)