100 Wine Enthusiast

"A voluptuous wine, this is rich and fruity yet properly balanced by a magnificent structure. Pure, crisp and packed with a black currant flavor, this will be a remarkable wine as it develops. Still young, it needs many years to develop. Don't think about drinking before 2025."

99 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

"The 2016 Pontet-Canet is absolutely breathtaking. Powerful, ample and racy in the glass, the 2016 is one of the most exquisitely well-balanced young Pontet-Canets I can remember tasting. Savory, high-toned aromatics and brisk mineral notes lend energy and delineation as this vivid wonderfully alive wine opens up in the glass. The flavors are dark and incisive, but it is the wine's total sense of harmony that is most compelling. All of the elements are simply in the right place. The 2016 is tremendous. It's as simple as that. As is often the case, Pontet-Canet is one of the most singular wines in Bordeaux. Alfred Tesseron could have chosen to play things safe when he took over the management of the estate in the mid-1990s. Instead, he chose a very different path. No proprietor in Bordeaux has taken more risks over the last two decades than Alfred Tesseron. A commitment to biodynamic farming, sustainability across the entire estate more broadly, and the adoption of new concepts for Bordeaux, such as aging a portion of the wine in terra cotta, set Pontet-Canet apart from other properties in Pauillac and the Left Bank. Not surprisingly, the wine is also starkly different from the wines of neighboring estates."

99 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2016 Pontet-Canet is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it explodes from the glass with bombastic creme de cassis, stewed plums, and blueberry preserves notes, giving way to subtle notions of licorice, lilacs, and damp soil plus a waft of truffles. Full-bodied, it is super concentrated with a lovely line of freshness and ripe, firm, grainy tannins, finishing very long and with amazing purity.

99 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider

Almost opaque in color, the wine kicks off with smoky blackberries, wet earth, underbrush, licorice, black cherry, and currants. Full-bodied, rich, and intense, the wine is incredibly concentrated. Think of placing a magnum of wine into a single bottle! And yet, somehow, everything here is in balance. There is a vibrancy to the fruit that you feel from start to finish. The depth of flavor holds your focus for close to 60 seconds as the wine builds, expands, and paints your palate with flavor. If you are a fan of Pontet Canet, you want this wine in your cellar. When fully mature, this is a candidate for perfection. The wine blends 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. 14.5% ABV. Drink from 2030-2065

98+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"The blend of the 2016 Pontet-Canet is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Around 55% of the wine was aged in new French oak barrels, 15% in two-year-old barrels and 35% in cement amphorae for 16 months. Deep garnet-purple colored, it opens with opulent scents of plum preserves, spice cake, hoisin and crème de cassis with fragrant wafts of potpourri, wood smoke and rose hip tea. Medium to full-bodied, rich and decadent, with loads of spicy layers, it has a firm, velvety texture with great freshness and incredible depth, finishing very long and on a compelling mineral note."

98+ Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

Reminding me of the 2010 and, I suspect, a wine that will merit a triple-digit rating in a decade or so (I tasted this on multiple occasions and thought it was perfect on one of them), the 2016 Château Pontet-Canet comes from 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot that spent 16 months in 50% new French oak, 35% in concrete amphora, and the rest in second fill oak. Thrilling notes of pure crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, crushed mint, graphite, and crushed rock notes all emerge from this deep, powerful, yet elegant Pauillac. The style of this wine has become more and more finesse-driven and pure, yet it hasn’t lost a beat on concentration or length. This singular, beautiful Pontet-Canet needs 7-8 years of cellaring (it has some accessibility today given its purity and balance) and will keep for 4-5 decades.

98 Decanter

Top wine of the vertical. Deep, violet hue. Even if the nose is slightly closed, initially, what pure fruit! A degree higher in alcohol than the 2015, but superb balance. The pristine fruit, fine-grained tannins, focus and precision lead to an outstanding finish, surpassing even the 2010. It has the sumptuousness of the 2015, but the arc and tension of the 2010.Great capacity for ageing. Aged 50% new oak , 35% amphora.

98 Jonathan Choukroun - Vert de Vin

The nose is fruity, elegant and offers a fine richness as well as a fine concentration. It reveals notes of fleshy blackberry and fleshy wild strawberry associated with fine touches of cassis, small crushed blue berries, liquorice, zan as well as discreet hints of spices and nutmeg. The palate is fruity, juicy, beautifully well-balanced, elegant, precise and offers a beautiful definition, dynamism, a beautiful fullness, a fine tension, a very beautiful finesse of the grain, a beautiful purity of the fruit, a good structure, suavity, a fine tension, gourmandize, a fine unctuosity, richness (but all in elegance/balance) as well as a fine fat. On the palate this wine expresses notes of cherry, blackberry, fleshy raspberry and more slightly strawberry associated with small touches of cassis, blackberry, liquorice, chocolate as well as discreet hints of coffee and cardamom (on the finish). Tannins are elegant and structuring. Good persistence. A very beautiful wine!