1983 Château Brane-Cantenac

Community Tasting Notes (91) Avg Score: 91.9 points

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  12/15/2023 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Nose of black berry, mint, forest floor, mushroom, and barnyard, same on the palate, medium/big body, tasty, mouth filling fruit, lots of subtle complexity, got better and better as the night went on, the medium/long finish was its best feature, very flavorful finish.

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  11/24/2023 - ATL wrote:

  Perfect!

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  11/19/2023 - Cailles wrote: 92 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: 1983 is a vintage for Margaux and this Brane showed that impressively. Nice complexity and precision with an impressive density for a 40-year-old wine. This deserves 92/93pts easily and one gets the impression that it can improve for a little bit longer. Intriguing bouquet with dark berries (the hot summer is on display here), cola and some burnt sugar notes. On the palate the same dark berry core, burnt sugar, herbs and good, balancing minerality component. Intense aromas, dense structure with still lots of fine tannins. Not as perfectly balanced as the 1989 in the next glass but still quite harmonious.
  
  Decanting: Not decanted. My guess is that this needs a good two hours in a decanter to fully blossom.

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  10/8/2023 - LWI wrote: 96 Points

  Vinøs hyttetur 2023: Blind. Krydret, fanstastisk kompleks nese; balasert, rik og silkemyk - men et fint tannindryss i en lang finish. Ungdommelig. Den aller beste flasken B-C jeg noen gang har drukket. Tippet Ch. Margaux 89 eller 83.

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  9/10/2023 - J_H Likes this wine: 92 Points

  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:
  - Intriguing nose, surprisingly good, has pretty good fruit too, almost as much fruit as the 1989 but not the balance as this.
  - Nice to drink on the palate, also feminine with lots of Cabernet fruit. Great acidity but also has some rough edges, still lots of tannins present that probably won't fully integrate. But still wonderful to drink!
  - 92 points

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