Above the Skyline with Justine Tesseron of Château Pontet-Canet

The Cellar Book: Notes on wine, people and place, one page at a time

On September 24, we welcomed Justine Tesseron of Château Pontet-Canet to Toronto for an afternoon in the Writers Room at the Park Hyatt, high above the city skyline. Around the table sat some of Toronto's top sommeliers, gathered to taste four vintages of one of Pauillac's most talked-about estates, followed by a rare look at the family's cognac house, Tesseron.

Justine represents the newest generation of a family that has guided Pontet-Canet since 1975. What follows are our notes from the day.

Three centuries, three families

Pontet-Canet's story begins in the early 1700s with Jean-François de Pontet, a Versailles courtier who became Governor of the Médoc under Louis XV. In 1705 he assembled a few acres north of the village of Pauillac and planted a vineyard. In 1757 he added an estate in a small area known as Canet, and following the custom of the time, joined the two names. Château Pontet-Canet was born.

The estate was included in the famous 1855 Classification as a Fifth Growth. Ten years later it was acquired by Bordeaux négociant Henri Herman Cruse, who modernized the property and built its celebrated cellars.

In 1975, Guy Tesseron, a grower and négociant from Cognac, bought the estate. His son Alfred took over management in 1994 and set out to raise quality well beyond the Fifth Growth ranking, with the steady support of his brother Gérard. Today Alfred's daughter Justine carries that work forward. Three families in three centuries, and a recent honour to show for it: two grapes in the new Michelin Guide wine estate ratings.

A hands-off approach, done entirely by hand

Pontet-Canet was the first renowned large-scale Bordeaux estate to farm organically and biodynamically, and the first Grand Cru Classé to earn double certification across the whole vineyard. Organic and biodynamic certification came in 2010, followed by Demeter certification in 2014.

Justine walked us through the details that set the estate apart:

Horses, not tractors. The team replaced tractors with horses in the vineyard.

Everything by hand. Grapes are harvested by hand for precision, and the estate recently retired all of its sorting machines. Sorting is now done entirely by hand.

Natural sun protection. During heat waves, the vines are sprayed with a homemade chamomile preparation that acts as a sunscreen for the grapes.

Straight to the vat. After final destemming, the fruit goes directly into the fermenter.

Concrete made from its own soil. The estate's concrete fermenters incorporate soil from the vineyard itself.

Less oak, more freshness. Since 2012, Pontet-Canet has moved away from new oak toward concrete, including amphorae. 2012 was the first vintage aged in amphora, and the shift has brought noticeably fresher vintages.

The result is a Pauillac leader in the natural, low-intervention approach, farmed with an unusual level of human care.

Four vintages in the glass

We tasted 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019, a snapshot of the estate's evolution since the move to amphora and concrete.

Château Pontet-Canet 2012. A slight rusty rim and a subtle earthy, barnyard note, yet still full of youthful energy. Punchy acidity and integrated tannins. Elegant, precise and drinking beautifully now.

About the 2012 vintage. A mild winter was followed by a wet spring with frequent heavy showers, so flowering came late and took longer than usual. From mid-July, a hot, very dry summer lasted into autumn and evened out the ripening. Heavy rain returned just days before picking, and the team added a third sorting line so that only perfectly ripe grapes made it into the vats. The harvest ran from October 4 to 17. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, at 13.5% alcohol.

Château Pontet-Canet 2014. A little reserved on the nose, earthy and quiet. Fuller and more robust on the palate.

About the 2014 vintage. A mild, damp winter gave way to a more typical spring. Flowering started slowly in late May, then a warm, dry weekend brought it on all at once, so it was very even. Mixed weather drew veraison out from late July to mid-August. A true Indian summer then arrived in September, hot and very dry, and the harvest ran smoothly from September 29 to October 10 with the fruit in perfect health. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, at 13.5% alcohol.

Château Pontet-Canet 2016. Aromatic and leaping from the glass. Super fresh and lively, with strawberry, pomegranate and dried herbs. A beautiful wine with remarkable integration, drinking well now with a long life ahead.

About the 2016 vintage. A mild, wet winter refilled the water reserves and set up months of active growth, shaping the estate's biodynamic approach for the year. Budbreak came early, but weeks of cool, damp weather then slowed the vines, making the late-May flowering a tense moment. From early July, more than three months of hot, dry weather lasted almost to mid-October. Merlot picking began on September 28, Cabernet Sauvignon followed on October 4, and the harvest ended on October 12. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, at 14.5% alcohol.

Château Pontet-Canet 2019. Fresh and aromatic, with an intriguing candied watermelon note reminiscent of Malbec. A warmer vintage showing in a fuller body, with violet and plum. Soft, round and generous.

About the 2019 vintage. After a mild winter, budbreak came in early April. A rare cold snap in May briefly slowed growth, but flowering was quick and even. Summer brought colour change from July 23, helped along by some welcome showers. Picking began in brilliant sunshine on September 23 with Merlot, then Cabernet Franc, with Cabernet Sauvignon coming in during the last days of September. The final Petit Verdot was picked at midday on October 10. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, at 13.5% alcohol.

Tesseron Cognac: a legacy measured in generations

The Tesseron family was making cognac long before Pontet-Canet. Justine's great-grandfather founded the house in 1905, and for most of the century the family sold its eaux-de-vie to négociants. In 2000 they stopped selling and launched the Tesseron label, drawing on the remarkable old stocks they had built up over generations.

The house sits in Grande Champagne, the most prized cru of Cognac, and works with its own vineyards. Ugni Blanc is the main grape, alongside Colombard and Folle Blanche.

How it's made. Every cognac is double distilled. Only the heart of the distillation is kept; the heads and tails are discarded. The clear eau-de-vie then goes into oak, where it slowly takes on colour and its alcohol gently declines. Over the years it moves into progressively older barrels, some of them up to 50 years old. The family ages in several cellars, some dry and some humid, which adds complexity to the final blends. One of them is a 12th-century crypt beneath a former monastery. After as long as 70 years in cask, the oldest eaux-de-vie are moved into glass demijohns and kept in the "Paradise" room, where some date back more than a century.

Blends, never vintages. Tesseron releases no vintage cognacs. Each lot is a blend, and the cellar master's challenge is keeping every bottling consistent year after year. It is patient work: bottles released today come from grapes grown in the 1950s, and this year's harvest will be blended by the next generation. By law an XO must be at least 10 years old; Tesseron's youngest blend, Lot 90, goes well beyond that.

The lots we tasted

Tesseron Lot 76 XO Tradition. 100% Ugni Blanc from Grande Champagne, a blend of reserve stocks aged more than one generation in Limousin oak. Fresh and lovely in the glass, with apple and cinnamon notes. The house describes caramelised peach, almond, candied fruit and honey on the nose, with nuts and dried fruit on a generous, gently spicy palate.

Tesseron Lot 53 XO Perfection. Ugni Blanc and Colombard from Grande Champagne, aged more than two generations in Limousin oak. Rounder and gently spicy in the glass, with cigar tobacco and baking spice. Gorgeous. The house describes a mahogany colour, plum, fig and dried fruit on the nose, and pepper, dark chocolate and fresh herbs on an opulent, lively palate with a long finish.

Time, patience and people

Whether in the vineyards of Pauillac or the cellars of Grande Champagne, the Tesseron family works on a timeline most of us can hardly imagine. Horses in the rows, hands at the sorting table, cognac blended for grandchildren not yet born. Tasting it all with Toronto's sommelier community, with the city spread out below us, was a reminder of why we do what we do.

Our thanks to Justine Tesseron for making the trip, to the Park Hyatt Toronto for hosting us in the Writers Room, and to every sommelier who joined us around the table.

Interested in Château Pontet-Canet or Tesseron Cognac? Contact the Halpern team to learn more.