Owned by the Tesseron family, Château Pontet Canet is located in the heart of the Pauillac appellation, just south of Châteaux Mouton Rothschild and d’Armailhac. Its terroir features rises of Garonne gravel on limestone bedrock. The 80-hectare (200 acres) estate is predominately planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, with small plots of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot which add smoothness and complexity to the blend.

The Château's vine growing philosophy is to intervene as little as possible and as naturally as possible in the vineyard. Only traditional viticultural and cultivation practices are used. Chemical weed killers are banned in keeping with environmental protection, and priority is given to the vine's long-term health.

Great attention to detail is paid during the harvest at Pontet Canet; in fact preparations begin as soon as the previous harvest is over! Alfred Tesseron designed a new system starting with the 1999 vintage. Grape picking baskets were replaced by small crates. Once full, these go directly from the vine to sorting tables. This avoids transferring the grapes from the basket to a backbasket then to a trailer. This also enables the château to manage lots of seven and a half kilos of grapes rather than two tonnes, which was the case when trailers were used…

The grapes are kept unbruised and uncrushed, and not pumped to avoid the risk of oxidation. They are sorted extremely carefully by hand, making it possible to separate lots according to plot and grape variety with extreme precision, and to fine tune the final blend.

Vinification takes place over 4 weeks to a month, depending on tasting, and then the juices are fermented for 2-3 weeks in oak and natural cement vats. The wines are matured for 16 months in approximately 60% new French oak barrels.

The Tesseron family has also long been a producer of one of the world’s finest Cognacs: Cognac Tesseron.