2018 La Croix Canon
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Tasting notes
This is more restrained and tightly knit than the more aromatically open 2018 Ségla. But, with a bit of coaxing, lovely brooding liquorice, incense, violet aromas and toasted dry spice notes emerge. The wine has impressive weight on the palate with rich, purple-fruited plum and cooked blueberry notes, dark chocolate, a touch of ferric minerality and dried bloody notes. The concentrated tannins are beautifully layered and there is a real mid-palate density to the wine that belies its second wine status. This is beautifully concentrated and already delicious but will evolve beautifully over the next five years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The second wine of this terrific estate, the 2018 Château Canon Croix Canon is well worth your time and money. Deep purple-hued, with a sumptuous bouquet of black raspberries, cassis, tobacco leaf, damp earth, and graphite, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a fleshy, rounded mouthfeel, no hard edges, and a great finish. This is pure Saint-Emilion pleasure and is ideal for enjoying any time over the coming 15 years. I suspect it will be even better with 3-4 years of bottle age.
The 2018 Croix Canon is a total pleasure to taste today. Sumptuous and inviting, with so much appeal, Croix Canon is a fabulous wine to drink now and over the next decade, maybe more. Soft curves, silky tannins and pliant fruit give the 2018 so much charm. Dark plum, spice, new leather, rose petal and mint all wrap around the juicy finish. In a word: exquisite.
This is not a second wine of Canon but a separate vineyard that borders Canon at one small section. The 2018 Croix Canon is made up of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc, with a pH of 3.69 and 14% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple in color, it opens with Morello cherries, black raspberries and stewed tea notions, giving way to hints of menthol, tobacco, sandalwood and fragrant earth plus a waft of dried mint. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has surprising elegance with plenty of freshness lifting the softly textured red and black fruit preserves, finishing on an iron ore note.