In the last post, I talked about a surprising Barolo. Today, it is about a surprising Bordeaux wine. I experienced the 2004 Château Pontet-Canet.
So the wine is 20 years old, comes from a cooler vintage and is from Pauillac, where the soil is stony and the tannins strong. This should translate into a somewhat austere wine with piercing tannins.
Instead, I experience quite a rounded wine, dark fruited, with a very pleasant and complex mouthfeel. The tannins do not overwhelm, but are getting more prominent and dry with more tasting. Overall, this wine is a pleasant surprise.
Score: 95/+++
The conclusion is that overall descriptors of vintage or soil deliver little accurate prediction of a particular wine. Despite the popular notion 'we let nature do their thing', winemakers have a significant influence on the end product. Why otherwise would some be so revered?
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