At Micasa for Shaun’s birthday. We’ve been hunting for Pontet Canet at “off vintages”, trying to find some good value, ever since we had the 2014 which was shockingly good, and definitely one of my top 5 wines in the past 12 months.

When opened, the 2012 had a beautiful nose that balanced dark red fruits, with wood. Very promising.
However upon decanting, the wine very quickly lost its fruits on the nose (about an hour in), and by the 1.5-2 hours mark, was almost entirely wood / cedar wood on the nose.

Medium body and medium length on the palette, nice balanced tannins and acidity.

In all likelihood, this is as good as the wine is going to be (I know… it’s still young for a classified Bordeaux) and I probably would not bother cellaring.
The 2014 is a far superior superior wine, because of the balance of fruit and secondary and tertiary notes throughout the drinking window. Good, but would not buy again.