2018 Château Brane-Cantenac

Community Tasting Notes (31) Avg Score: 93.1 points

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  4/7/2024 - ptepper Likes this wine: 96 Points

  2018 brane cantenac
  Malty chocolate. Cherries. Perfumed Cabernet. Violet. Little leather and cedar. 20 second finish lingers. Very earthy and good
  96

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  12/31/2023 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points

  No notes taken. This is a wonderful wine with fine, not too ripe dark fruit, lots of earthy minerality and some herbs as well as some gentle, not intrusive oak aromas. Very well balanced, with a fine structural frame and good freshness. It is already drinking quite well today and isnone of the better 2018s out there, easily beating the SHL 18 (91pts) in the next glass.
  
  Decanting: Open and ready from the go, no extensive decanting needed.

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  11/19/2023 - Cailles wrote: 94 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: The nose was a bit subdued at first, gaining expression with time, but never fully open. The palate, however, was open right out of the gate with layers of surprisingly fresh fruit with dark berries, fresh red fruit, rhubarb notes, herbs, touch of coffee/toasty notes and a bit of faint minerality. Unlike many other 2018s, the fruit is on the right side of things in terms of purity and ripeness. The structure is impeccable and the wine seemed almost delicate, more delicate than the 2016s and 2019s in the other glasses. This was easily at 94pts.
  
  Decanting: Not decanted. No extensive decanting necessary.

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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/aciadity (except for 2015 according to my impression).
  
  Tasting Note:
  - This vintage shows similarities to the 2020 vintage, but in a more restrained way. It is characterised by aromas of red and dark plums and blackberries.
  - On the palate, it is noticeable that this wine is a little warmer than the 2020 vintage, has less acidity and a touch of sexiness.

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  4/18/2023 - bdisk1235 wrote:

  Decanted initially for 4 hours and drank over 2 nights. The wine wasn't that great on the first night - not much depth, muted black fruit and high tannins. The wine also had a green streak that I associate with Cab Franc and was surprised by given the relatively low proportion of Cab Franc. On the second night the wine was better - the greenness had mellowed out and the wine was much more integrated and the fruit and tannin were more in balance.
  
  I know its entirely too early to drink this wine and I'm hoping its just in a dumb phase. Either way, I'll stash my remaining bottles away and forget about them for a long time.

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