Château Canon: Recent Vintages
Now I come to look at the four most recent vintages, starting with 2011, a very significant year as it was then that the vineyard was expanded with the acquisition of the Matras estate. The Matras vines brought an extra 12.5 hectares to the mix, and after their inclusion the Canon vineyard grew to 34 hectares. Whereas the Curé Bon purchase facilitated the continued production of the grand vin during a replanting program, however, the stated objective of the Matras purchase has always been to increase production of the second wine.
The harvest for the 2011 Château Canon began early, this being a very warm year, the warmest on record in France in fact (warmer than 2003, a constant surprise to many, except perhaps Winedoctor readers, mainly because I keep going on about it). Picking was underway for the Merlot on September 7th, finishing on the 16th, while the Cabernet Franc harvest was on the 16th and 17th. The fruit was sorted by hand and eye, John Kolasa clearly not interested in optical sorting technology, his description of the first time he recalled seeing it in action, and the smell of vinegar that wafted out of the cellars into the vineyards all around, being enough to understand why he has never gone down this road. The fermentation was otherwise quite standard, with two weeks of maceration with pumping over and punching down, with malolactic in cuve and barriques thereafter. It’s an attractive wine that resulted, although it does show the grip and grain of the vintage.
Thereafter came another moderately challenging vintage, although the 2012s are showing better than ever these days, and the 2012 Château Canon is no exception. The 2013 Château Canon is a good effort for the vintage, while the 2014 Château Canon has nice fruit and plenty of potential. All three vintages have been described in detail in my recent 2012 Bordeaux, 2013 Bordeaux and 2014 Bordeaux reports though, and so I won’t pick them apart further here.
Sadly the publication of this report marks the end of an era for Château Canon, as John Kolasa retires in July 2015. His replacement is Nicolas Audebert. Before John goes, I will also publish a Rauzan-Ségla retrospective to match this one for Château Canon. (2/6/15)
