Château Canon Chaigneau

The château

Canon Chaigneau stands at the top of the Néac plateau, in the east of Lalande-de-Pomerol, 1 kilometer north of Petrus, on deep clay and limestone loaded with iron. Chaigneau is an old name among growers. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, print 6 to 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) at Chagneau under Guérin in 1868, and their English edition of 1883 records a vineyard being created there by J.-J. Cabanes, then owner of Château Gazin in Pomerol, which made 40 tonneaux by 1886. The Marin family worked the estate for decades and remain shareholders; Louis Marin has run the vineyard for almost 40 years. Romik Arconian, a wine merchant born in London, and his wife Marine Fontana, an agricultural engineer, took it over in 2020, with a few close friends as investors.

The cellar has been Thierry Garnaud’s since 1995; he spent nearly 40 years at Château Cheval Blanc, many of them as cellar master. The 21 hectares carry vines of 35 years and have held Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) certification since 2020. The château wine is about 95% Merlot, with Cabernet Franc and Malbec, which the Libournais call Pressac. It ferments 15 to 18 days in concrete vats of 44 to 150 hectoliters, pumped over 3 times a day, and is raised for about 20 months, some 35% of it in French oak barrels of 500 liters, new or of 1 or 2 wines, from the coopers Sylvain, Demptos and Taransaud, and the rest in concrete. The Cuve 8a is made and raised in concrete alone, from parcels chosen for their mineral edge, and the Cuve 1a, 100% Cabernet Franc, was first made in 2022. The white, the rosé and a Crémant, Les Bulles, come from a neighboring grower, chosen by Thierry Garnaud and bottled under the estate’s label.

The 2019, which I tasted in April and again in May 2024, was then perhaps my new favorite wine from Lalande-de-Pomerol: dark and vibrant, black and red fruit with a touch of truffle, savory and juicy, with balanced acidity, tannins that are a pleasure, and 10 years or more ahead of it. What stays with me is its precision, which may owe something to who makes it. The 2007, tasted in March 2025 at 18 years, showed its tertiary notes but still plenty of fresh fruit, and could have gone longer. Lalande-de-Pomerol is too often overlooked, and this estate shows what it can do, at a fraction of the prices of its neighbors.

At a glance

Appellation

Lalande-de-Pomerol

Commune

Néac

Classification

No classification

Owners

Romik Arconian and Marine Fontana, since 2020; the Marin family remain shareholders

Direction

Thierry Garnaud, cellar master, since 1995; Louis Marin, vineyard

Vineyard

21 hectares at the top of the Néac plateau; vines 35 years old on average

Soil

Deep clay and limestone, rich in iron Terroir of Lalande-de-Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot about 95%, with Cabernet Franc and Malbec

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, since 2020

Cellar

15 to 18 days in concrete vats of 44 to 150 hectoliters; about 20 months, 35% in oak barrels of 500 liters, the rest in concrete

Wines

Château Canon Chaigneau; Cuve 8a; Cuve 1a, 100% Cabernet Franc, from 2022; a white, a rosé and Les Bulles, a Crémant, chosen from a neighboring grower

In history

A vineyard created at Chagneau by J.-J. Cabanes of Gazin in 1883; 40 tonneaux in 1886