TN: 2002 Pontet Canet

WINE TALK
1

Sometimes bottles are opened, well knowing it’s much too early…
Here is one :
2002 Pontet Canet, 375ml.
Cellared since release, opened 4 hours, no decant, sound cork, 2mm inked.
Color is dark purpur red, to the rim.
Aromas dominated by vanilla-oak, ripe blackberries and almond/marzipan.
Flavors are black sour cherries, vanilla, bitter-sweet dark chocolate, and a fairly long and sticky sugary aftertaste (-not a nice finish IMO).
-All complexity brutally dominated by the powers of fresh oak. [head-bang.gif] -Some resemblance with a barrel-tasting.
2002 Pontet Canet ½btl..jpg
2002 Pontet Canet color.jpg
For My taste, this is not nice right now, and I wonder when/if this will be a great mature wine, to drink with food ?

  • So different from the classic Bords from the eighties, -if I remember correctly from tasting them aged for 14 years.

-Søren.

2

Hi Soren, so are you optimistic that this wine will mature into something like the bdx you are looking for or not?
I have some and so I am curious.

Thnx Brodie

3

Hi Brodie.
This is an early Rolland wine (Consulting them from 1999), and I haven’t tasted any of these new-styled wines at mature yet ! -So only a guess, that this one needs 14 more years to cool the oak, and what will then remain ? I must admit there are plenty of dark fruit, but it’s also a tad ripe, so…
I’m always optimistic about aging big wines, and also often surprised and pleased, when the early predictions are proven wrong.

Further aging of weird-staged wine, can result in strong recoveries, and this 2002 is hopefully just in a very awkward stage right now.
It is a Pontet-Canet, -known to need the long cellaring.

-Søren.

4

I’m not convinced 02 was underrated. Not in the way 01 and 04 were.

5

All very nice vintages…in fact for me '01 and '04 made some wines better than '00/'05/'09 and '10 combined

6

02 can yield some delicious wines if not long lived or complex, but almost any oak can be too much for the wine to handle in this vintage. As someone who is ok with drinking lumber, I like it a touch better…

7

Had this a number of years ago, and it was clear that it was going to need a LOT of time. Nice classical, tough-as-nails Pauillac.

8

Thanks for the nice note, Soren! Sounds very typical for ‘modern’ Bordeaux. Instead of becoming more balanced with time, too many of those wines are increasingly falling apart…

9

+1 [thumbs-up.gif]

10

I had the 2002 in april. Here my notes:


2002 Pontet-Canet
Impressive bouquet. But clearly decline in the mouth. Sticks in the mouth and also lacks of length and complexity 90/100

Here more notes regarding Pontet Canet:

11

Martin, Your note on 2002 P-C, could have been mine, just in the short version.
“Sticks in the mouth”. -I agree. -Is it lacking the good acid ?

-And thx for the TN-link, including the 2002 Mouton TN.
I also got a case+ of 2002 Mouton R, and have drunk two btls, in 2008 and 2014, both times a fantastic pleasing wine. They got it so right this year. Not mature of course, but honest and seamless stuff. A true great 2002. Looking forward to the next, in a couple of years.

Regards, Søren.

12

My first 2002 was Palmer’s Alter Ego…I remember sitting at this restaurant sipping it and thinking to myself, “So this is the shitty 2002 vintage? Then sign me up!!!”…gorgeous stuff

13

I’ve liked every 2002 I’ve had.

14

I also got some 2002 GPL and Lynch B. Not touched yet.
The Pichon Comtesse, was fine and on track several years ago, and noted as next try in 2020.

-Søren.