Inky in color, you have a hard time seeing into the glass. The wine opens with notes of wet clay, flowers, black plums, truffle, black currants, and blackberries. On the palate, the wine is intensely concentrated with seemingly endless layers of rich, deep, opulent, black, and red fruits. There is an opulence to the fruits, along with freshness and velvet-textured tannins that make you want to go back for sip after sip. The endnote with a refreshing touch of mint and spice is exactly the perfect touch. Give this another decade in the cellar to age and it will be incredible for at least another 2-3 decades after that. Not much of this gem is going to be available as yields were only 11 hectoliters per hectare due to outbreaks of mildew. This is a candidate for triple-digits when fully mature! The wine blends 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. 14.5% ABV. Drink from 2032-2065. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-tasting-note/?vintage=2018&wine=Chateau%20Pontet-Canet

A complex nose of blueberries, elderberries, dried fruit, spice and dark chocolate. It’s full-bodied with a harmonious, balanced texture. The tannins are still firm and powerful, but there’s balance and finesse to the whole thing. Tight and reserved, yet long and energetic. The tannins open slowly. Dusty texture. From biodynamically grown grapes. Try after 2024.

The 2018 Pontet-Canet is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. It was aged in 55% oak barriques and 45% amphorae. Deep garnet-purple colored, it explodes from the glass with an atomic perfume of raspberry pie, blackcurrant pastilles, rose oil and Chinese five spice, giving way to suggestions of cinnamon stick, dusty soil, pencil lead and underbrush. The rich, seductive, full-bodied palate is a hedonist's dream, delivering layer-upon-layer of black and red berry preserves with loads of fragrant accents, a beautifully firm yet plush texture and tons of freshness, finishing long with a whole firework display of exotic spices. This is pretty much out-of-the-gate delicious, but it has the backbone to evolve over three decades or more. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

When I tasted the 2018 Pontet-Canet in barrel I described it as a "freak of nature." The 2018 is more than that, it is a freak of nature. Made from yields of just ten hectoliters per hectare, the 2018 possesses off the charts richness, phenomenal balance and head-spinning intensity. Crushed red berries, flowers, mint, cedar and rose petal saturate the palate in a Pauillac of breath-taking richness. The silkiest of tannins frame the phenomenally pure, long finish. This is a towering achievement from the Tesseron family and former Technical Director Jean-Michel Comme, who together spearheaded biodynamic farming in Bordeaux and built the present-day estate around a philosophy of non-interventionalist winemaking. In 2018, grapes were crushed solely by hand. Because of the tiny yields, the entire production was vinified in Pontet-Canet's new smaller concrete vats. All winemaking was done manually, without the aid of external temperature control or electricity. Put in another way, if Lalou Bize-Leroy made Bordeaux, it would taste like this. -- Antonio Galloni

This wine combines the richness of the vintage with a sophisticated structure of smoky tannins and spicy wood aging. It is still young, with a powerful structure and ripe, vibrant black-currant fruits. The wine needs plenty of aging. Drink from 2028. Organic and biodynamic. - Roger Voss

(97+ points) An unevolved, almost primordial 2018, the 2018 Château Pontet Canet sports a dense purple hue as well as loads of blue and black fruits, damp earth, tobacco, candied violets, and graphite-laced aromas and flavors. With full-bodied richness, serious mid-palate depth, and building tannins, it's mostly potential at this point, but it's a beautiful wine in the making. A decade of bottle age is going to be required, though, so it's not for those seeking instant gratification.

The 2018 Pontet-Canet has a deep garnet-purple color. It offers up open-knit, pronounced notes of prunes, raisin cake, and Chinese five spice, with hints of potpourri, dusty soil, and cardamom. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is velvety and generous, with flamboyant, floral-laced black fruits and an energetic finish.

The concentration that comes from having yields of 12hl/ha is extremely clear - it makes it feel very Pauillac, again resembling as at Latour, a 2010 style in terms of its backbone and sense of hunkering down. The fruit quality is dark and knitted, with a creamy texture if you give it a minute to settle, an obvious tannic structure and a menthol finish that lets in some juice, bramble and hedgerow pleasures. It’s clearly impressive, although I get just the slightest touch of over-concentration with hints of prune on the finish. The small yields meant the entire process, from destemming to sorting, was done by hand (last year around 30% of the crop was treated in this way), then fermented in small 40L cement vats that had seen their first service for just part of the crop in 2017. There was huge amounts of hard work and stress to ensure that no dried grapes made it through, with no pumping over and only soft manual punch down to control extraction. Read more at https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/france/bordeaux/chateau-pontet-canet-pauillac-5eme-cru-classe-2018-29270#SsF4bM0i1w7dMC34.99

Knitted down tannins, powerful concentration to the blackberry, black cherry and cassis fruits. A gourmet feel overall, rippled with cocoa bean and cigar box, this is an excellent wine and for me has improved since En Primeur. Still needs plenty of extra time in bottle, but already has definition and finesse, and evident potential. A difficult vintage at Pontet Canet, with tiny yields after losing 2/3 of the crop to mildew, making the success in the glass even more striking. Additions in the celllar also at this point, with 400l small cement vats made from their own soil. No pump overs, no lees stirring, the entire harvest sorted and destemmed by hand, no electricity beyond lights in the cellar, as little intervention as possible throughout the whole process.