Château Canon

Jacques Kanon, a French privateer who acquired wealth in the Caribbean, purchased the property in 1760 when it was a small estate known as Saint Martin. He converted the land into a monoculture of vines and commissioned the construction of the current chateau, which was completed in 1767. A decade later, the land was sold to the Fontemoing family, who were established wine merchants in the region. A descendant of this family officially changed the name of the property to Château Canon in 1853. After nearly eighty years of ownership by the Fournier family, the estate was sold in 1996 to the Wertheimer family, owners of the luxury house Chanel.

The vineyards are located on the Saint-Émilion limestone plateau at an elevation of approximately 87 meters. The estate includes 34 hectares of vines, with 24 hectares classified for the production of the first growth wine. The soil consists of clay-limestone layers sitting above deep limestone bedrock and ancient underground quarries. Plantings are currently composed of 70 percent Merlot and 30 percent Cabernet Franc, following a long-term replanting program to increase the Cabernet Franc holdings. Winemaking involves manual harvesting and plot-by-plot fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. The wines typically age for 18 months in French oak barrels, with the proportion of new oak around 50 percent. The property received organic certification starting with the 2024 vintage.

Château Canon is a Premier Grand Cru Classé B within the official Saint-Émilion classification system. The estate produces its grand vin, Château Canon, alongside a second label called Croix Canon. This second wine is sourced from 11 hectares of vines on the western slopes of the plateau and is vinified in a separate facility housed in a twelfth-century chapel. Under the management of Nicolas Audebert, the estate has maintained a reputation for wines characterized by mineral tension and purity of fruit. These wines are recognized for their vertical structure and ability to age for several decades, often exhibiting notes of black cherry and floral aromatics with a saline finish.