Tasted at the Chateau Canon vertical, the 2005 Canon is evolving into a quite gorgeous Saint Emilion. One can still discern those brown spices infiltrating the ripe red and black fruit. There is fine mineralité here, great focus, perhaps just a hint of dried blood that develops with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe tannin. It is a very complex Saint Emilion with immense purity and style, a wine that you have to keep coming back to in order to understand. It's at that pivotal stage between primary and secondary notes, the red and black fruit being overtaken by cedar, morels and a touch of game. It gently lifts and fans out to a quite captivating finish. Dare I say that the 2005 Canon is the pick of the three over 2009 and 2010? There...I've said it...it is a quite brilliant wine. Tasted October 2015.

With a saturated deep ruby color, but less intense than some other St.-Emilions, this is probably the best Canon in a number of years. It is still made in a relatively austere, tannic style, but strong black cherry and loamy soil notes intermixed with some licorice and background subtle oak lead to a rich, elegant, stylish effort that is closed and in need of cellaring. Give this wine, which clearly reveals the minerality of this top-notch vineyard, at least 7-8 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 20-25 years.

Shows coffee, light toasty oak and milk chocolate. Full-bodied, with layered tannins and a woody, ripe fruit aftertaste. Rich, chewy and very powerful. Impressive. Gets better and better. Best after 2014. 4,200 cases made. -JS

Shows a lightly roasted edge at first, with raspberry and boysenberry confiture notes laced with melted licorice, singed alder and firm graphite details. Reveals a fine chalky hint, but this has more bass than treble overall. Still rather tight.—Non-blind Canon vertical (December 2016). Best from 2020 through 2030. 4,200 cases made. –JM

Intense, oaky, undeveloped. Very youthful, very oaky, very tannic. Plenty of underlying flavour.