2013-CHÂTEAU-BRANE-CANTENAC-2ème-Cru-Classé-Margaux

CHÂTEAU BRANE-CANTENAC

2012 2ème Cru Classé Margaux

Grapes Merlot, Cab Sauv
Colour Red
Origin France, Bordeaux
Sub-district Haut Médoc
Village Margaux
Classification 2ème Cru Classé
ABV 13%

Henri Lurton has pulled out another great wine here - proper claret with beginning, middle and end, quite ripe and intense but retaining dryness and drive. Pretty serious. Rating: 92 L&S (May 2013)


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The 2012 Brane-Cantenac has a clean and fresh bouquet, more mineral-driven than its peers, vivid and bright with beautifully integrated oak. The palate is medium-bodied with a savoury entry, quite irony in style and more linear than the aromatics suggest. There is just a touch of dryness towards the finish that makes me question whether it will go anywhere interesting in the future. Tasted blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting. Drinking range: 2022 - 2035 Rating: 91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Sept 2022)

The 2012 Brane-Cantenac was picked from September 27 to October 16. It has a straight-down-the-fairway, classic nose for this estate, featuring open tobacco and graphite aromas that display great vivacity. You would think this was a Pauillac if tasted blind. The medium-bodied palate is more saline compared to previous bottles, delivering fine tannin and a tang of white pepper and fennel toward the finish that lingers in the mouth. This was a big surprise, but the 2012s have really blossomed in bottle, and this is no different. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château. Drinking range: 2021 - 2045 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)

Fresh, red berry nose with a leafy note as well. Smooth texture. Supple and velvety with refreshing acidity behind. Linear and direct on the finish. Appetising and balanced, just misses a little density. (Lawther's best value from Margaux 2012.)James Lawther MW, decanter.com (May 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.

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