FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 64
Chateau Pontet-Canet 2010
A fifth growth across the road from Mouton Rothschild brought draft horses back into its vineyard and in its first certified organic and biodynamic vintage made a wine three critics scored a perfect 100.
- Maker
- Chateau Pontet-Canet
- By price in wine
- 89 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Chateau Pontet-Canet, Pauillac, Bordeaux
- Classification
- Fifth growth (Cinquieme Cru) in the 1855 classification
- Owners
- The Tesseron family since 1975; run by Alfred Tesseron since 1994
- Vineyard
- About 80 to 81 hectares under vine
- 2010 blend
- 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
- Alcohol
- 14.5%
- Farming
- Biodynamic; 2010 was the first vintage certified organic and biodynamic
- Production
- About 20,000 to 25,000 cases of the grand vin a year
- Critic scores
- Robert Parker 100, James Suckling 100, Lisa Perrotti-Brown 100
A governor, a merchant and a Cognac house
Pontet-Canet takes the first half of its name from Jean-Francois de Pontet, an 18th-century royal governor of the Medoc who enlarged his holdings in Pauillac with steady purchases of vineyard land. Several years after his death, his descendants bought a well-known section in the Canet area, and the two names were joined. The estate grew into one of the largest in the appellation.
In the 1855 classification, Pontet-Canet was ranked among the 18 fifth growths. A decade later, in 1865, the leading Bordeaux merchant Herman Cruse bought the estate, and his family owned it for 110 years.
In 1975, after the 1973 Bordeaux wine fraud scandal, the Cruses sold Pontet-Canet to Guy Tesseron, a Cognac merchant whose family already owned Chateau Lafon-Rochet in St-Estephe. The vineyard he bought was in poor condition and needed heavy replanting. In more than two centuries the estate has belonged to only three families.
Alfred Tesseron and the horses
Alfred Tesseron took over the estate in 1994. Though trained in enology, he describes himself and his team as growers rather than winemakers, and credits the vineyard, not the cellar, for the estate's rise. He was helped by Jean-Michel Comme, who joined Pontet-Canet in 1989 and served as its technical director until he left in May 2020, after 31 years. The consultant Michel Rolland was hired in 1999. Alfred now runs the estate with his children, Justine and Noe.
Comme helped persuade Tesseron to try biodynamics. Experiments began on 14 hectares in 2004, starting with Merlot, and the results led the estate to go fully biodynamic in 2005; 2007 was the last vintage in which chemicals were used. Pruning replaces green harvesting and leaf thinning, and yields are usually below 35 hectoliters per hectare.
Pontet-Canet also brought horses back to the vineyard. Breton draft horses plow the soil, because they never step in the same place twice and compact it less than tractors. The first five were named Reine, Surprise, Turbo, Ulysses and Universe, and the horses now work 34 hectares. Other famous estates, among them Latour, Margaux and Clinet, have since followed suit.
Next door to Mouton
The estate covers about 120 hectares, of which roughly 80 to 81 are under vine, at the northern end of Pauillac, across the road from Mouton Rothschild and near Lafite Rothschild and d'Armailhac. It is almost one block of vines, split into two main parcels and 92 smaller blocks: Cabernet Sauvignon dominates near the chateau and Mouton, while the parcel closer to the river carries more Merlot. The soils are deep gravel over clay and limestone.
Plantings are about 60 to 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 32 to 33% Merlot, with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The vines are planted at about 9,500 per hectare.
The wine is fermented in 11 conical wooden vats and 37 concrete tanks, each of 80 hectoliters, fed by gravity from the sorting tables above. In later years the estate added aging in 900-liter amphorae made from the gravel and limestone of its own vineyard, alongside about 50% new oak. Sources differ on production: one gives nearly 20,000 cases of the grand vin a year, another about 25,000.
2010: a dry summer and cool nights
The 2010 Bordeaux vintage followed the celebrated 2009, and the region's own scientists were at first cautious about it. The winter was long and harsh, with three cold waves. A warm, remarkably dry April got the vines moving, but cool, wet weather in June disrupted the Merlot flowering, causing shot berries and uneven bunches and lowering yields.
Then came a remarkably dry summer without heat waves, which put the vines under more widespread water stress than in 2009. Warm days and cool nights in August and September kept acidity in the grapes. By the following spring the University of Bordeaux's oenologists declared 2010 'a very great year' for both reds and whites.
For Pontet-Canet it was also a milestone. In 2010 the estate became the first major Bordeaux producer to earn official organic certification, and it was the first vintage certified biodynamic. The final blend was 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, at 14.5% alcohol.
Robert Parker scored it 100 in February 2013, calling it 'an absolutely amazing wine' of 'off-the-charts massiveness and intensity,' a wine that needed a good decade of cellaring and could last 50 to 75 years. James Suckling also gave it 100 in November 2013, citing aromas of blueberry, minerals, dried flowers and stones. Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW gave it 100 in June 2022, noting Chinese five spice, smoked meats and cigar box and calling it delicious to drink then. Another longtime Bordeaux critic, tasting it in July 2022, scored it 97 and found a touch of heat in the long finish.
The world in 2010
The year opened with catastrophe: on January 12 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, and in February an 8.8 quake hit Chile. In April the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano grounded flights across Europe for weeks, and the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded.
Apple released its first iPad that spring. In July Spain won the soccer World Cup in South Africa, and WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 classified reports on the war in Afghanistan.
A fifth growth priced like a second
Pontet-Canet's rise under the Tesserons has carried its prices well above its 1855 rank, and one longtime critic writes that it now makes wine at the level of the best second growths. Because the estate makes a large volume, the 2010 still turns up regularly on retail lists.
In October 2026 a California merchant listed a 750 ml bottle of the 2010 at $279, in stock. That is an asking price, not a sale.
The numbers
- Estate
- About 120 ha in all, about 80 to 81 ha under vine
- Vine density
- About 9,500 vines per ha
- Typical yield
- Usually below 35 hl/ha
- Production
- Nearly 20,000 cases (one source) or about 25,000 cases (another)
- 2010 blend
- 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
- 2010 alcohol
- 14.5%
- Robert Parker
- 100 (February 2013)
- James Suckling
- 100 (November 2013)
- Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
- 100 (June 2022)
Timeline
Pontet-Canet is ranked a fifth growth in the Medoc classification.
The Bordeaux merchant Herman Cruse buys the estate.
Guy Tesseron, a Cognac merchant, buys Pontet-Canet from the Cruse family.
Jean-Michel Comme joins the estate.
Alfred Tesseron takes over management.
Michel Rolland is hired as consultant.
Biodynamic trials begin on 14 hectares.
The estate goes fully biodynamic.
The last vintage made with any use of chemicals.
Pontet-Canet earns organic certification, and the 2010 becomes its first certified biodynamic vintage.
Robert Parker scores the 2010 100 points.
James Suckling scores the 2010 100 points.
Jean-Michel Comme leaves after 31 years.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW scores the 2010 100 points.
A California merchant lists a bottle of the 2010 at $279.
The world in 2010
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
A magnitude 8.8 earthquake strikes Chile.
Apple releases the first iPad.
Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, disrupting European air travel for weeks.
The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Spain wins the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
WikiLeaks publishes more than 90,000 classified reports on the war in Afghanistan.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $279 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle ($279), in stock, at a California merchant. Not a sale. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Chateau Pontet-Canet 2010 is number 89 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (64 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Pontet-Canet has belonged to only three families in more than two centuries.
- The first five horses to plow Pontet-Canet's vines were named Reine, Surprise, Turbo, Ulysses and Universe.
- Alfred Tesseron says he and his team are not winemakers but growers.
- The estate's amphorae are made partly from the gravel and limestone of its own vineyard.
- In January 2016 the Tesserons bought the late Robin Williams's Napa Valley estate and renamed it Pym-Rae.
- Robert Parker predicted the 2010 could last 50 to 75 years.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026