Area under vines: 25 hectares
Soils: clay-limestone and clay-sand
Average age of the vines: 45 years
Ageing: in 80-100% new oak barrels for 15 to 20 months
Production: 65 000 bottles a year
Planting density: 5500 feet per hectares
Grape varieties:
Learn more about Château Canon La Gaffeliere
here
55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Tasted blind. Not much nose but lots of mass. And tannins are still much in evidence but there is a certain sleekness. Inky finish and good drive.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2040
The 2016 Canon La Gaffeliere has an outstanding, very detailed and complex bouquet of cedar-tinged black fruit and touches of truffle, almost Graves-like in style. The palate is medium-bodied with sweet ripe tannin and rounded in the mouth. The new oak is quite conspicuous at the moment, though it should be fully assimilated with bottle age. This wine is driven by the Cabernet Franc, at one of the highest percentages in recent years, lending a great deal of freshness. Give this five or six years in bottle. A fabulous Canon-la-Gaffeliere.
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2045
The 2016 Canon la Gaffeliere is a blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon (vines organically certified) picked from 26 September to 15 October and matured in 60% new oak. The yield is 42 hectoliters per hectare. This offers one of the most cerebral aromatics that I have encountered from this Saint Emilion estate: mineral-rich red and black fruit, quite edgy, almost flinty in style. I adore the focus of these aromas that are wired directly into the olfactory senses. The palate is very well balanced and governed by the Cabernet component. The black fruit is lifted by some lovely graphite notes that lend it a very Left Bank-like personality. It is fresh, taut and linear with a very persistent finish. Unlike other vintages of Canon la Gaffeliere, I feel that this will require four to five years in bottle. As good as the 2015 last year, it might even surpass it.
Anticipated maturity: 2023-2050
