2010 Château Brane-Cantenac

Community Tasting Notes (94) Avg Score: 92.5 points

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  3/21/2024 - wombat wrote: 92 Points

  Color: Dark purple verging on black with 1 cm of dull ruby, brown-orange and light pink on the rim.
  
  Aroma: Big and Bold, Earthy Blackberry, Black cherry, earthy Violets, charred coffee beans, smoky wood, herbs (dill, oregano, sage, rosemary), wood spices from vanilla to light pepper, light cinnamon,
  
  Flavor:
  Initial: Juicy Bing Cherry, plum, red currants, ripe strawberry, all with earthy undertones,
  Middle: Fruit and earthy flavors carry on through the finish, arrival of smoky coffee, herbs, spices and vanilla,
  Finish: Medium long with good intensity.
  
  Comment: The acidity makes this an appropriate food wine. I opened this the day before and it has lost very little of it's vibrancy.

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  3/6/2024 - Robbie O Likes this wine: 93 Points

  This wine has entered its drinking window well integrated and in perfect balance of fruit, acidity and nicely fine-grained tannins. There was a bit of funk on the nose and in glass upon first splash, but this all resolved with air and really started to sing. Classic Margaux nose and on the palette a mix of black fruits and blue with touch of graphite/pencil lead. I recently drank and reviewed the 2010 Rauzan-Segla and made inference to how it was polished and not a lush fruit bomb like perhaps an Issan or Brane-Cantenac, but I was wrong. This wine is not at all modern in style and has a real sense of class and sophistication to it. Again, like the Rauzan-Segla, I would recommend bringing it up to temperature but not too much above cellar temperature. A 60-90 minute slow-ox in bottle and it should be singing. It’s in a nice drinking window now but doesn’t feel like it’s going away anywhere for probably another decade. Great quality/price ratio too. Enjoy!

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  2/24/2024 - SonnyChiba wrote: 93 Points

  Beautiful Bordeaux, really love where this at right now. Only room to improve, but for now it is damn tasty.

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  1/2/2024 - belfast taxman wrote: 93 Points

  Our New Year’s Day Claret and our first from a half case of this vintage. The colour was deep garnet with no hint of ageing. We decanted for an hour. The nose was sensuous- black fruit, cedar very left bank. Drunk over a period of about an hour, one noticed a surprising variation between each mouthful. Some seemed a tad lightweight but others very full on with rich cassis/black cherry. There was tannin but it was nicely in line with the fruit and alcohol. A very good Margaux.

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  11/19/2023 - Cailles wrote: 95 Points

  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: Wow, this is a stunning wine. Yes, it is from a time when ripeness was pushed, yes, it was born in a hot vintage but in 2010, but the team at Brane Cantenac managed all this very well. The nose is expressive with intense fresh black and even fresher blue fruit, some coffee notes and minerality. Fascinating and all delivered with high precision. The same goes for the palate, which needed a bit of air to really shine. Quite layered with a wide range of well delineated fruit from black to blue with even some hints of red berries in there, coffee, herbs, minerality all wrapped around the fruit creating a beautiful aromatic balance. The structure is impeccable, with a wall of ripe, fine tannins, high acidity and a rather airy texture (especially compared to the denser, more slutty 2009 in the next glass). Quite complete and a lot of fun to drink.
  
  Decanting: Not decanted. A short 1-2 hours should be enough.

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