CHÂTEAU CANON
2020 1er Grand Cru Classé Saint Emilion
Market Insight: There isn't an awful lot that needs to be said about the Chanel owned Chateau Canon. So much has been done in the last decade to raise the quality and profile here - if you're lucky enough to get an allocation, take it.L&S (May 2021)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
Rating: 98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (May 2023)
The 2020 Canon is a wine of mind-blowing purity and nuance. It has been nothing less than thrilling on the three occasions I have tasted it so far. Intensely saline and chalky, the 2020 possesses spellbinding finesse and nuance. Red-toned fruit, crushed rocks, white pepper, rose petal and mint all come alive in the glass, buttressed by clean saline notes that extend the mid-palate into the finish. There is simply nothing like great Canon. And the 2020 is unquestionably a great Canon. Drinking range: 2030 - 2070 Rating: 100 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2023)
Stunning, grab-a-friend, insanely good wine. The structure and tannic grip manage to be both barely there and tightly controlling, giving form and space for the raspberry, blueberry and pomegrante fruits to crowd in the palate, followed by oyster shell salinity, pummice stone scrape and electic points of mandarin peel and lemon grass. Finished with pure no messing about juiciness. 50% new barrels, 3.53ph. Harvest 4 September to 23 September. 50% new oak, 40hl/ha yield. Thomas Duclos consultant, Nicolas Audebert director. Drinking range: 2028 - 2046 Rating: 100 Jane Anson, Decanter (Feb 2023)
The 2020 Canon, bottled in May 2022, has an exquisite bouquet that stops you in your tracks. Breathtaking delineation and focus, taut and linear, yet with ample fruit, this unabashedly exudes its propitious terroir. The palate is delectably creamy on the entry with fine salinity, vibrant and tensile, with a very persistent finish. This Canon ranks amongst the finest overseen by the team in recent years. Chapeau. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Drinking range: 2026 - 2055 Rating: 97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Feb 2023)
The 2020 Canon is a gorgeous, sophisticated wine. Silky and soaring, Canon is vertical in build, with a real sense of explosive energy that give the wine its shape. Rose petal, lavender, mint, spice and ripe red/purplish berry fruit all meld together effortlessly. The 2020 is an especially airy, understated Canon. I can't wait to see how it ages. Drinking range: 2035 - 2060 Rating: 95-97 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Jun 2021)
The 2020 Canon nailed it this year, the best since the benchmark 2015/2016 vintages. It has one of those bouquets that stops the clock thanks to its breathtaking delineation and focus, fragrant black cherries, bilberry, shucked oyster shell and crushed rock aromas. It is cool, calm and collected. The palate possesses exquisite definition, armed with simply crystalline red fruit matched with a perfect silver bead of acidity. There is tangible tension from the start and it fans out gloriously toward the pixelated finish. This brilliant Canon should offer 20–30 years of drinking pleasure, probably more. Chapeau! Drinking range: 2026 - 2055 Rating: 96-98 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2021)
The 2020 Château Canon is another brilliant wine in a long line of brilliant wines from this incredible team and consistent estate. Coming from the upper plateau (unquestionably one of the finest terroirs on the upper plateau) and 68% Merlot and 32% Cabernet Franc, it offers a perfumed, ethereal nose of red and blue fruits, violets, white flowers, and unsmoked tobacco. With riveting purity, full-bodied richness, flawless balance, and a great, great finish, it’s going to push the upper limits of my scale. The tannins here are incredible as well, and this beauty should drink well for 20-30 years. Hats off to technical director Nicolas Audebert and his team for another insanely good wine. Rating: 96-98 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (May 2021)
In common with a handful of other elite Saint-Émilions in 2020, Canon manages to seamlessly combine lusty fruit intensity with piercingly bright freshness on the palate and this makes it a wonderfully rewarding wine. The nose is voluminous, layered and open and the palate starts in the same vein with deep, red berry fruit cut with flashes of darker more malevolent flavours. As the palate progresses it slowly closes down to a final flourish of fit tannins and keen acidity and it is this jolt of freshness that allows the luxurious notes which precede it to gain perfect balance. This is an expansive and delicious wine and I do not doubt that it will drink early in its life, but given that the tannins are so refined and active this vintage will mellow over two or three decades if it is given the chance. This is my highest Canon score to date and it is definitely a wine to watch in 2020. Rating: 18.5 Matthew Jukes www.matthewjukes.com (May 2021)
The 2020 Canon is a blend of 68% Merlot and 32% Cabernet Franc, aging for 18 months in French oak, 50% new. It weighs in with 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.53. Deep garnet-purple colored, it bursts from the glass with vivacious notes of Morello cherries, redcurrant jelly, wild blueberries and black raspberries, plus hints of powdered cinnamon, clove oil, star anise and dusty red soil. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in grace, delivering exquisitely ripe, finely pixilated tannins and bold freshness to support the tight-knit black, red and blue fruit layers, finishing long with loads of exotic spices and mineral sparks. An exhilarating triumph! Drinking range: 2027 - 2062 Rating: 98-100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (May 2021)
This is intense, structured and concentrated yet with an abundance of violet and peony notes that curl up through the tannins, combining halfway through the palate with blueberry, raspberry, tobacco, gunsmoke and sculpted, precise pulses of chalk minerality. There is just so much to talk about with this wine, but the overall impression is of dozens of carefully crafted elements that steal up on you. It's hard not to be convinced by its success - and as ever with Canon you are in no doubt as to how well it will age. Gorgeous. 50% new barrels. 3.53pH. Harvest 4 September to 23 September. 50% new oak. A yield of 40hl/ha. Could go up after tasting in bottle, a potential 100 points. 98-100. Drinking range: 2027 - 2050 Rating: 99 Jane Anson, Decanter (May 2021)
Wow. This is really exceptional with super density of fruit that remains clear and agile. Blackberries, currants, violets and spice, as well as some chalk and salt. It really goes on for minutes. Best of the trilogy? Rating: 98-99 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (May 2021)
68% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc. Refined and discreet. Delicately perfumed, berry-fruit aromas. Gentle attack then builds and persists, the tannins so fine as to be inconspicuous. No exaggeration but a depth and presence that reflects the potential. Drinking range: 2028 - 2045 Rating: 17.5 James Lawther MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2021)
Château Canon
Atop the limestone plateau of St Emilion, and just west of the village, is Château Canon. Originally named Clos St Martin, the vineyard was bought by privateer and naval man Jacques Kanon in 1760. He expanded the vineyard beyond the original clos walls and built the château, but sold up after 10 years of tenure to the Fontémoing family. At some point, they also owned Château Canon in Fronsac which may account for the current name for the St Emilion estate, but it is more likely named for the dashing Jacques Kanon – either way, the owners of the Fronsac estate were not best pleased when Clos St Martin morphed into Château Canon in 1853. For most of the 20th Century, Château Canon was owned by the Fournier family but their tenure was one of gradual and sad decline. In 1996, they sold up to Alain and Gerard Wertheimer who had not long purchased Rauzan-Ségla in Margaux. Fortunately, the Wertheimers, owners of Chanel, had the wherewithal to attend to Canon’s many problems. A long term programme of complete replanting of the vineyards was started and the winery was completely renewed. The vineyard area has been expanded by the purchase of a couple of near-by plots. The, now, 34ha are planted with 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc. Opinions on Château Canon’s wines can be mixed, although tasters views may be tainted by memories of disappointing wines from the recent past. There is little denying that quality has improved considerably under the Wertheimers. In the 1996 St Emilion classification, Château Canon was granted Premier Grand Cru Classé (B) status, something re-affirmed by the 2006 and 2012 revisions. The second wine of Château Canon, first produced in 2000, was Clos Canon but will be known as Croix Canon from the 2011 vintage.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those on the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do contact our private client team via email or on 020 7018 0187.
Ordering
Prices are all in bond by the case size stated.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment to buy wines on release, as long as the release price is within the upper and lower price bands set by you on the pre-order form. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability but providing this firm commitment to buy effectively gives you priority and is a good idea for the most desirable wines.
Wines listed on the website can be ordered in the usual way via the website wishlist order form. You can also send orders directly to our private client team via email. Please note that, for the most sought-after wines, priority will be given to those who ordered the same wines last year and to those that have pre-ordered.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of email confirmation. Pre-orders are not binding if the release price is above your upper price band.
Invoices are all raised at the in bond price (excluding any duty and VAT) which will become payable at the prevailing rates when the wines arrive in the UK, should you wish to take duty paid delivery.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We regret we cannot accept credit cards for en primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (at LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £500. Orders below this total will be charged an administration and handling fee of £16.50+ VAT when invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery of 2022 Bordeaux bought en primeur is expected during 2025. Delivery dates may vary as wines are shipped from Bordeaux at different times.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes). Immediate payment of invoices is then required by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option but please note that confirmed orders are still binding even if the final invoice has not yet been issued.
Please specify on your wishlist order form where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. If this is to a third-party bonded warehouse, please specify the relevant account details. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue a second invoice for duty and VAT at the prevailing rate when the wines are available for delivery.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the format you want. While most of our listings are for 75cl bottles, we can source wines in any format that is offered by the Château. Please note that format requests cannot be changed once wines have been invoiced. Additional charges for special formats do apply and are as follows:-
- +£18.00 per case of 12 half-bottles
- +£30.00 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£7.50 per case of 3 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£11.00 per case of 6 Magnums
- +£45.00 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£60.00 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.
Storage Options:
Wines bought en primeur won't arrive in the UK until 2025. If you do not wish to take home delivery at that point, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our private client team for more information.