Château Canon-La Gaffelière 2021 en Primeur

This has a gorgeous herbal-fruity nose, scented, fresh and lively with raspberry leaf. Impactful on the palate straight away - the fine-grained tannins hit the mouth and expand slowly alongside the liquorice spice and dark berry fruit with violet aromas. It's direct and linear at the moment, taut, and driven in one line. You feel it's coiled up ready to spring with strawberry fruit and the Cabernet aspects coming through. It's delicately textured, the mouthfeel is light and bouncy while the flavours slowly expand vertically. Touches of sweetness, bitterness and minerality appear adding interest from start to finish. I love the clarity you get. Impactful and full of complexity. Will be lovely to taste this in bottle. 5% more Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon than usual as some Merlot was lost to frost and mildew. A production of 98% grand vin. Drinking Window 2025 - 2045. 

Lovely, perfumed character with cherries, spices and flowers. Medium-bodied, firm and polished with solid tannins and a fresh finish. Pure. Light coffee and walnut. Well crafted.

The 2021 Canon la Gaffelière is beautiful, bursting from the glass with aromas of rose petals, lilac, sweet berry fruit, burning embers and warm spices. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and elegant, with a fleshy core of fruit, lively acids and beautifully refined tannins, it's the highlight of the von Neipperg portfolio this year. Cabernet Franc, as usual, takes the lead.

One of the gems out there, the 2021 Château Canon-La-Gaffelière is well worth seeking out. Giving up ample blue fruits, medium to full-bodied richness, ripe tannins, and complex, pure aromatics of violets, iron, and tobacco, it shines for its balance and elegance while bring terrific depth of fruit. Count me impressed.