CHÂTEAU BRANE-CANTENAC

2011 2ème Cru Classé Margaux

Colour Red
Origin France, Bordeaux
Sub-district Haut Médoc
Village Margaux
Classification 2ème Cru Classé
ABV 14%

Fine taut texture. A tight, even consistency, a close grain, with ripe red fruit and hints of truffle and undergrowth as well as oaky spice. Not flamboyant, but one the the rare great successes of this vintage in Margaux. It's quite serious and unsmiling, but there is a nice energy and a sort of mineral verve to the palate. It grips firmly but never harshly. Rating: 92 L&S (Apr 2012)


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The 2011 Brane-Cantenac has a beautifully composed and focused bouquet with mineral-driven black fruit. Not powerful, but this is quite chiselled. It gains a sense of voluptuousness with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with a green note on the entry, moderate depth and fine acidity, but I cannot help feeling that some underripe grapes that should have been deselected ended up on the Grand Vin. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting. Drinking range: 2022 - 2034 Rating: 89 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2022)

Bright, medium ruby. Red cherry, strawberry, violet, tobacco leaf and flint on the nose. Juicy and firmly built, showing good clarity and brisk acidity to its fairly intense red fruit flavors. Finishes with serious but essentially fine-grained tannins and a lingering floral element. Rating: 89 Ian d'Agata, www.vinousmedia.com (Jul 2014)

Made in a sexy, perfumed style, this 2011 seduces the taster with its wonderful aromatics of blue, red and black fruits, flowers, damp earth and forest floor. With excellent to outstanding concentration, fresh acidity and velvety tannins, this plush Margaux is atypically opulent/flamboyant for the vintage. Drink it over the next 12-15 years. 2012 - 2027 Rating: 90-93 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, www.RobertParker.com (Apr 2012)

Château Brane-Cantenac

Margaux Deuxième cru 1855 The estate was originally called Château Gorce after the family that owned it in he 18th Century, but the story really begins with its purchase by Baron Hector de Brane in 1833. Baron Hector was a well-known figure in the area, earning himself the nickname "Napoléon of the the Vines" and so keen was he to own Château Gorce that he sold Château Brane-Mouton in Pauillac to finance the purchase. Quite how much wisdom there was in ridding himself of the what was to become Château Mouton-Rothschild in order to secure the ownership of a slightly under-performing Second Growth property is debatable, but at the time the wines of the estate were consistently highly(ish) ranked. From the late 19th Century onward Brane-Cantenac followed a familiar Bordelais downward spiral. In 1920, it was purchased by the Societé des Grand Crus de France, owners of (among others) Château Margaux. In 1925, ownership passed to Léonce Récapet and his son-in-law François Lurton, but the real rennaissance of Brane-Cantenac came in 1956 when François' son - the great Lucien Lurton - took over. Today, his son Henri Lurton continues to run Château Brane-Cantenac. The period of Lurton ownership has been good to Brane-Cantenac, and the wines are consistent good performers although not really ranking alongside the best Second Growths of the Haut-Médoc, but this probably says more about the relevance of the 1855 classification than it does about the terroir and wines of Château Brane-Cantenac. Brane-Cantenac sits south-west of the village of Cantenac, next to Cantenac-Brown. There are 75ha of vineyard given over to 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc and a very unusual 0.5% Carmenere. The Grand Vin spends 18 months in wood, of which 50% is new every year. The second wine is called Baron de Brane in honour of Baron Hector who put the estate on the map in the early 19th Century.

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