2002 - Chateau Pontet Canet

"This wine has seemingly gone to sleep and is in a dormant, ungracious stage, exhibiting notes of green tea leaves intermixed with red and black currants in its dusty nose. A medium-bodied wine with moderately high tannin and a certain austerity, it seems to be a much less impressive effort than I thought from barrel or is it just impossibly closed? There is still substantial size and tannic clout to the wine, but the fruit seems to have gone into hiding. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2020+". "As most well-informed insiders in Bordeaux know, proprietor Alfred Tesseron has been doing everything right since 1994 in order to fully develop the enormous potential of this vineyard adjacent to Mouton-Rothschild. Some serious work is done in the vineyard including de-budding, de-leafing, and crop-thinning. The harvest usually takes place in several attempts trying to maximize ripeness and there are two separate sorting tables. Yields have dropped dramatically, and of course there is a severe selection".