CHÂTEAU BRANE-CANTENAC
2014 2ème Cru Classé Margaux
77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc. This is impressive, spicy, quite dark, rich fruit and brooding power. Easy to see how this will be great drinking. Proper, classically shaped claret that in its firmish style is already attractive and just flows so well. This will no doubt be fabulous drinking in 10 to 15 years time. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 92 L&S (Apr 2015)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac marked the arrival of a new vineyard manager, Pierre Auché. This has a lively, pretty and charming bouquet with redcurrant and wild strawberry scents bursting from the glass. Fine delineation. The oak is nicely integrated here. The palate is medium-bodied with powdery tannins and decent concentration considering the vintage. Black pepper and cedar notes emerge towards the grippy finish. Maybe it lacks the refinement of the best vintages, but at 11 years old it is beginning to drink well and should for another 15 years. Very fine. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château in September 2025. Drinking range: 2025 - 2042 Rating: 91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Sept 2025)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac has an upfront, opulent bouquet with vibrant black fruit, touches of meat juices, mint and potpourri. One of the more complex aromatics within the Margaux flight. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, lightly spiced with a dash of black pepper. This builds in the mouth towards a structured and impressive finish. This should age well in bottle and is a splendid display and one of this vintage's best values. Tasted blind at the Southwold 10-Year-On tasting. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2024)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac is similar to the bottle poured blind at the Southwold tasting just a few weeks earlier. It has a crisp red currant and cranberry bouquet laced with tobacco, cedar and chalk. The palate is well defined and beautifully balanced, delivering crisp acidity and fine tannin. This is unashamedly taut and linear, but it displays commendable energy on the mineral-driven finish. Great potential here, although I would advise giving it a few years in bottle. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the property. Drinking range: 2025 - 2050 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac offers a mixture of red and black fruit on the nose, traces of cedar and tobacco, even a mote of chalk dust. It is understated but very complex. The palate is medium-bodied with fine grain tannin, smooth and silky in texture, the acidity well judged but just a touch of greenness shows on the finish, as it often does with this château. Just give it the prerequisite bottle age of ten years or so and you will have a very fine Margaux. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2024 - 2045 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2018)
Rich, dense, pretty exciting with lots of nerviness. Complex. Deep flavoured. Drinking range: 2021 - 2040 Rating: 17 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Feb 2018)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac has a very classy bouquet, very well defined with blackberry, cedar and tobacco scents, that trademark graphite scent emerging with a few swirls of the glass. It is exactly what you expect from this Margaux estate. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, well-judged acidity, graphite and cedar towards the linear finish that will clearly need several years to unfold. Classic Margaux really, but wise owls will cellar it away for several years. Drinking range: 2022 - 2045 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Mar 2017)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac is a burly, powerful wine that will need quite a bit of time to come into its own, although it may never be particularly refined. Today the tannins are clenched and imposing, especially for the wine’s medium-bodied frame. Bright red stone fruit, white pepper and floral notes are some of the signatures. Drinking range: 2024 - 2039 Rating: 92 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2017)
Lovely fragrance, the class evident from start to the finish. Very Brane-Cantenac: floral, great finesse, elegant persistence and a good future. (Highly recommended Margaux, Decanter.) Drinking range: 2019 - 2034 Rating: 91 Steven Spurrier (Apr 2015)
The 2014 Brane-Cantenac is a striking, wonderfully complex wine with a lot going on. Powerful at the outset yet also quite floral almost to the point of being exotic, the 2014 is certainly not lacking in nuance or personality. Hints of orange peel, mint, white flowers and berries open up gradually in a wine of understatement. The firm tannins add energy and convey an overall impression of classicism, while tobacco, iron and smoke punctuate the powerful, expressive finish. This is going to be a fascinating wine to follow over the coming years and decades. Tasted twice. Rating: 90-93 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2015)
Dark, fairly evolved crimson. Sweet, light, a bit simple and green. This is the sort of casually made wine that gets classed growths a bad name – though of course it may not be a classed growth!? (It is.) Drinking range: 2018 - 2026 Rating: 16 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2015)
Although it appears sweet ripe fruited on the nose the start of the palate is lighter and fresher with red fruits under the black. Cassis gives a richer feel in the middle but at the back there is a lot of red fruited acidity. Drinking range: 2025 - 2035 Rating: 86-89 Derek Smedley MW, www.dereksmedleymw.co.uk (Apr 2015)
A wine that shows structure and ambition, with 70% new oak and a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon underpinned by freshnes, minerality and subtle concentration. Cedarwood notes add an extra dimension. Drinking range: 2022 - 2030 Rating: 92 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2015)
A gentle, elegant style, with pretty lilac, red currant and cherry notes, lined with a liberal savory hint that lingers through the sandalwood-edged finish. Rating: 87-90 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2015)
A solid core of fruit here with lots of cabernet character, as well as currants and blueberries. Full to medium body. Chewy tannins, yet polished and refined. Rating: 92-93 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2015)
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.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.