2025 Canon la Gaffeliere

A lighter, more herbal-styled wine based on 40% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2025 Château Canon-La-Gaffelière offers juicy red fruits, sappy flowers, graphite, tobacco, and a kiss of minerality on the nose. On the palate, it's medium-bodied, with fine, polished tannins and a good finish. It's a more Cabernet-dominated effort from this château, and while I'd love to see a touch more generosity here, it's beautifully balanced, and I suspect it will gain volume over the course of its élevage.

Black cherries, licorice, flowers, chocolate, smoke, and mint leaves create the perfume. The multiple layers of fruit grab your attention with their elegance, purity, and energy, finishing with a refreshing touch of chocolate-mint and a light touch of sea salt, adding sapidity, so you want to take another sniff and sip, just for the pleasure of it. The wine blends 45% Cabernet Franc, 40% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. 13% ABV. The harvest took place from September 16 - September 19, making this the shortest harvest in the history of the property. Yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare.

The 2025 Canon La Gaffelière is bright and beautifully focused right out of the gate. Orange peel, sage, mint, pipe tobacco, dried flowers and mocha soar out of the glass. Floral aromatics and brisk saline notes are the signatures in a tightly wound Canon La Gaffelière that is going to need a number of years to be at its most expressive. I especially admire the energy here.