2022 Château Canon

The 2022 Canon is a regal wine of total sophistication and class—aromatic, light on its feet and super-expressive. Crushed flowers, chalk, mint, dried herbs, incense and blood orange all race across the palate. Clean saline-inflected notes extend the mid-palate and finish effortlessly. Even with all of the heat and drought of the year, Canon retains its essential, highly refined personality.

- Antonio Galloni (01/2025)

Fascinating dark aromas such as cherries and currants as well as Spanish cedar. Umami. Some dried flowers. Medium- to full-bodied, this has juicy and savory fruit such as intense berries with sandalwood and dried-mushroom undertones. Lots going on here. Very muscular for Canon but well-formed and beautiful. Minerally and salty at the end. 75% merlot and 25% cabernet franc. Best after 2022. (01/2025)

Ripe black cherries, graphite, crushed stone, and a beautiful floral character all define the 2022 Château Canon, another brilliantly pure and seamless wine from this team. Based on 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, it was raised in 50% new French oak, with a small percentage in foudre. Medium to full-bodied, it’s focused and precise on the palate, with ripe, polished tannins, integrated acidity, and a gorgeous finish. The elegance and purity here are truly striking, and it brings that rare mix of power and elegance. This sensational Saint-Émilion should evolve gracefully for three decades. In my view, it’s the finest Canon ever, surpassing the 2009, 2010, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. (02/2025)

The 2022 Canon has turned out brilliantly in bottle. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of sweet raspberries, wild berries and cherries mingled with hints of violets, pencil shavings, black truffle and rose petals, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a dense, enveloping core of fruit underpinned by a chassis of sweet, suave tannins, concluding with a long, saline finish. This is one of the most muscular, broad-shouldered vintages of Canon in recent years, but it retains every bit of its limestone-driven identity. As I wrote two years ago, this is an estate that is delivering its greatest run of vintages since the superb Post War series that preceded the frosts of 1956, and the 2022 is indeed reminiscent of a modern day version of one of those great years.

- William Kelley (03/2025)