2021, Château Canon, SAINT-ÉMILION Grand Cru Classé

Bordeaux Blend: Cabernet Franc, Merlot.

The château itself has recently enjoyed a substantial make-over. It is now right back up there as one of the very best of all the Saint Emilion châteaux. New director Nicolas Audebert had an amazing start to his career at Canon. His triumphant 100 point 2015 has been followed by a string of great vintages. Farr Vintners.

A brilliant wine in the making, the 2021 Canon offers up aromas of cherries, wild berries, licorice, sweet soil tones, raw cocoa, Indian spices and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's immensely refined and seamless, with a lively spine of acidity, ripe tannins and a long, penetrating, intensely saline finish. This beautifully balanced Canon is one of the classiest, most complete wines of the Right Bank in this vintage. 94-96 William Kelley, Wine Advocate.

Dramatic, rich and imposing, the 2021 Canon is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. Sculpted red purplish fruit, rose petal, lavender, sage and crushed rocks all race out of the glass. A heady, vertical wine, Canon is endowed with tremendous concentration and class. This is such an elegant and regal wine. 95-97 Antonio Galloni, Vinous.

Gorgeous bright plum colour with violet reflections. The epitome of careful, precise, well-spliced winemaking. This is just elegance and finesse personified. Red cherry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, slate, saffron, oyster shell, they have teased out layers of complexity that were not easy to find in the vintage, and there is length also, with pummice stone salinity scraping across the palate. It's subtle, and it's not at the heights of a 2019 Canon, but this will not be out of place in a vertical of the estate. 96 Jane Anson.

A wine full of finesse and class with fantastic length and polish. Medium to full body with ultra-fine tannins that run endlessly down the length of the wine. Blackberry, graphite and spice. Agile and weightless. 96-97 James Suckling.