November 19, 2023 - 20 Vintages of Brane Cantenac: My limited experience with Brane has been mostly positive, and this tasting confirmed my initial thoughts: these days, Brane is A) usually quite accessible and charming, even young; B) the quality has steadily improved over the years, the wines are becoming more complex, precise and balanced; while vintages pre 2015 often seemed a bit simple, more recent vintages show better, C) the aromatics in recent vintages remind me of Ch. Margaux, with beautiful ripe red fruit core, as well as floral and coffee components; and D) the quality/price ratio is exceptionally good (not considered for the ratings). E) The best wine was the ethereal 2020 (96 points), followed by a superbly fresh 2010 (95 points). Although the quality is exceptional these days, the Chateau didn't fully nail every vintage, the 2019 (93pts) and, more surprisingly, the 2016 (93pts) were strong but a tad too ripe and sweet.
TN: There was a lovely, fresh dark fruit component on the nose and especially palate but overall, this bottle did not perform well as it showed lots of green and bitter notes and an unintegrated high acidity.
Decanting: Not decanted. I don’t think that the wine would have improved much with air.
September 10, 2023 - Vertical of 20 vintages - Chateau Brane-Cantenac: It was a pleasure to taste 20 vintages of Brane-Cantenac. All wines were tasted blind and with little time (10min per flight of 4 wines). Coming from the Margaux appellation, the wine convinced 1) with its accessibility of all vintages, 2) often very feminine and fresh vinification and 3) especially the consistency of quality to be emphasized. So it was not surprising that all 20 bottles (for the first time in this tasting with 12 people) were empty. At the same time, it could also be noted that the very great complexity for ratings above 94 points is often somewhat lacking. Very exciting to observe were the significant change in fruit. Until the 2009 vintage, this was often primarily red-fruited, light and very strongly Cabernet influenced. From the 2009 vintage on, a clear shift to more extraction and sweetness of the fruit is noticeable. The last, often great vintages from 2015 to 2020 are ripe but still with a good freshness/acidity (except for 2015 according to my impression).
Tasting Note:
- A slightly more complete nose with more dark fruit flavors compared to the 1995, has some astringent tannins, green touch here too and still strong tannins. Still seems a bit young. Questionable if it's worth storing here any further, certainly decant.
- 89 points
October 1, 2022 - Day one, had a 2 hour decant nose was coming around with a classic aged Bordeaux. It was still slightly closed and had a short finish, very good but short. Day two really came around, tannins are fully integrated and resolved but still lightly present. Fruit is muted and aged, wood flavors and earth take over but work together Still somewhat youthful and will go longer.
April 29, 2022 - Drinking very well still. Had two of these in 2021 and just had the third. Very soft tannins, equal good fruit on the nose and mouth, long finish.
January 27, 2022 - During a Bordeaux blind tasting session. This wine fooled us quite a bit. It was very closed and dense at the beginning, I was thinking 2009 Pauillac. Lots of structure, bright acidity, delineated. Opened up more and more and ended up being a highlight of the evening.
October 21, 2021 - Didn't love this - seemed to have some VA going on. Maybe I got a bad bottle.
September 26, 2021 - Decanted for about an hour. Drinking well but mature. Red fruits, tobacco, perhaps a hint of dust.
July 31, 2021 - Beatiful mature Bordeaux with a bouquet that goes on and on.
June 21, 2021 - Very smooth, velvet texture greeting, medium fruit
The wine looks tawny colored. The legs are slow. There is moderate sediment in the bottle. It smells like fig, plum, stoniness and forest floor. It tastes like strawberry, red currant, fig, raisin, cinnamon, flint and mushroom. The body is medium/full. The wine has satin-like texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has medium acidity.
April 17, 2021 - Strong tobacco flavours and mellowed fruit with deep colour. Good but was expecting more