Château Canon 2005

The 2005 vintage in Saint-Émilion

Vintage benchmark: 98/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A drought that never stalled ripening gave opulent, perfectly structured merlots: a legendary vintage.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Émilion. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

The vintage

Growing season

2005 was a year of drought. After a particularly dry winter (the moisture deficit reached as much as 70%), January and February were very cold, and then March was very mild and almost summer-like. April was the only month to have real rain. The budding and then the flowering (first week of June) were completed in quite quick time and in good weather conditions. The first signs of drought appeared as early as June bringing about a slowing down of vine shoot growth. The hot weather continued into July before letting up in August when the temperatures were cooler. Because of the lack of water, the size of the berries remained small and sugar content as well as total polyphenol content in the grapes at picking were high.

Harvest dates

Merlot: from September 16th to 17th (the young vines), from September 20th to 27th

Cabernet Franc: September 27th and 28th

Blend of the 2005 vintage

Figures from the 2005 sheet

• 35 hl/haYield
• 25 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Alcoholic fermentation for 10 days. Maceration for 15 days in temperature-controlled oak vats with three daily pump-overs of half or the whole of the volume of the vat. Malo-lactic fermentation in stainless steel vats and in barrels.

Ageing

Ageing in barrels, 60% of which are brand new, racking through the small bunghole at the end of the barrel every three months, fining with fresh egg whites and no filtering.

Terroir

Château Canon occupies a south-west-facing limestone terrace that makes up most of its surface area. A quarter of the estate lies on the slope of this hillside, which descends gently towards the Dordogne. This imposing mass of sedimentary rock is criss-crossed by numerous galleries, evidence of the quarrying of this building material since the 16th century. The site, which peaks at 87 metres, benefits from perfect ventilation and a walled enclosure that protects the vines from spring frosts. This setting allowed the château to be among the few estates to produce wine during the severe cold of 1766 and 1956.