2018 Chateau Brane CantenacBlend from France
Ratings Ratings 96 96 ...
96 Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast
This is now performing as one of the top Margaux estates. Their latest release shows structure, elegant black fruits and rich tannins. Densely textured and vibrantly fruity, the wine has a fine future. Drink from 2027.
96 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider
Elegant, fresh and refined, the wine offers layers of sweet, ripe, fresh, red berries, smoke, flowers, wet earth, herbs, spice box and tobacco leaf in the perfume. On the palate, the wine is silky, lifted, long and pure, displaying a beautiful depth of flavor in the finish. The wine blends 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.
95+ Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com
A quintessential Margaux as well as one of the finest wines I've tasted from this estate, the 2018 Château Brane-Cantenac is based on 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all aged in 70% new French oak. Beautiful cassis and mulberry fruits as well as notes of leafy tobacco, spice, cedarwood, and spring flowers emerge from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant, it has loads of fruit, a seamless texture, and a good spine of acidity. Give bottles 4-5 years and enjoy over the following 30 years or more.
95 Antonio Galloni - Vinous
The 2018 Brane-Cantenac opens with a super-classic bouquet of dried herbs, pencil shavings, licorice and mint. Medium in body and wonderfully nuanced, Brane-Cantenac marries the natural richness of the year with a classic structural feel. This is one of the most elegant, restrained 2018s readers will come across. I loved it.
95 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com
Aromas of mushroom, meat, bark and iodine with blackberries and blackcurrants, following through to a full body with firm, creamy tannins that give structure and form to the wine. Tight on the finish. Long and persistent with presence. Drink after 2025.
95 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux
This is a serious wine, with well constructed walls and floor, but it's full of life too, with brambled, succulent and generously-extracted fruit on the nose. It has less immediate charm than some in the appellation and will take a while to come round, but it has clear ageing ability and is one to savour. You feel the precision and confidence in how it presents itself. 1% Petit Verdot makes up the blend - there was no Carmenère in the grand vin in 2018. 45hl/ha yield. 70% new oak.
95 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent
Brane-Cantenac 2018 is deep garnet purple in color. It offers a perfumed nose of lilacs and spice box, over a core of warm cassis, preserved plums, and forest floor, with a hint of crushed rocks. Full-bodied, rich, and with wonderfully velvety tannins, it has a lively backbone and a very long mineral-tinged finish.
95 Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux
Generous yet balanced, plenty to sink your teeth into here, this is a Brane Cantenac that knows exactly where it is going, and that has kept a Margaux effortlessness even in the heat and drought of the summer. You feel the warmth in telltale sweetness of the fruits - blackberry puree, cassis fruit pastilles, plenty of bitter black chocolate and liqourice, but it never loses its juice, and keeps momentum through the palate. No Carmenère in the blend in this vintage.
Specifications Specifications
Color | Red |
ABV | N/A |
Size | 750mL |
Closure | Cork |
Varietal(s) | Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc |
Taste | currant, blackberry, cherry, bell pepper, olive, asparagus, spice, ginger, oak, vanilla, black cherry, plum, smoke, toast, tar, tobacco, raspberry, cassis, violet, pepper and green bean |
Nose | currant, blackberry, cherry, cedar, cigar box, violet, rose, truffle, earth, coffee, leather, tobacco, broccoli, berry and flower |