2004 Château Brane-Cantenac, Margaux, Bordeaux

2004 Château Brane-Cantenac, Margaux, Bordeaux

Product: 20048003243
Prices start from £45.25 per half bottle (37.5cl). Buying options
2004 Château Brane-Cantenac, Margaux, Bordeaux

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Description

The 2004 Brane-Cantenac is a far better wine than the 2003. It has much more energy on the nose, which features red berry fruit and hints of tobacco, sage and sous-bois, all beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin and crisp acidity, and very well balanced, even if it is missing a little complexity and mineralité toward the finish. This is a conservative Brane-Cantenac that refuses to go the extra inch. But it should please those who appreciate classic claret over the next 10 or so years. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château.

Drink 2018 - 2030

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (January 2019)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous90/100

The 2004 Brane-Cantenac is a far better wine than the 2003. It has much more energy on the nose, which features red berry fruit and hints of tobacco, sage and sous-bois, all beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin and crisp acidity, and very well balanced, even if it is missing a little complexity and mineralité toward the finish. This is a conservative Brane-Cantenac that refuses to go the extra inch. But it should please those who appreciate classic claret over the next 10 or so years. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château.

Drink 2018 - 2030

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (January 2019)

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Wine Advocate90/100

A beauty from the Margaux appellation, this savory, floral, plum, cherry, and black currant-scented 2004 exhibits wonderful sweetness, medium body, and enough fresh acids to provide definition. An ethereal quality results in a pure, seductive wine that should drink well for 12-15+ years. How good it is to see this famous estate back on track.

Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (June 2007)

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Jancis Robinson MW16/20

Sweet ripe black fruits – plums as well as cassis – with a subtle vanilla note. Smells riper than the other Margaux wines tasted thus far. Chalky textured tannins but not drying. Classic if unexceptional. 

Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2009)

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About this WINE

Chateau Brane-Cantenac

Chateau Brane-Cantenac

Château Brane-Cantenac was for many years the home of Lucien Lurton - it is now owned and run by his son Henri. Its vineyards are located west of the village of Cantenac in the Margaux appellation. Brane-Cantenac's vineyards are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon (55%), Merlot (40%), Cabernet Franc (4.5%) and Carmenère 0,5%,  and lie on fine, gravelly soils. Vinification includes up to 18 months' wood ageing, a third to a half in new `barriques'.

Brane Cantenac was perceived throughout much of the 70s and 80s as an underperforming property. Since Henri took over, there has been extensive investment in the cuverie and chai, as well as vastly improved vineyard management techniques. Consequently, the wines at Brane Cantenac now show more weight and concentration, although they still possess that haunting bouquet and quintessential elegance that characterise the wines of Margaux. It is classified as a 2ème Cru Classé.

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Margaux

Margaux

If Pauillac can be seen as the bastion of ‘traditional’ Red Bordeaux, then Margaux represents its other facet in producing wines that are among Bordeaux’s most sensual and alluring. It is the largest commune in the Médoc, encompassing the communes of Cantenac, Soussans, Arsac and Labaude, in addition to Margaux itself. Located in the centre of the Haut-Médoc, Margaux is the closest of the important communes to the city of Bordeaux.

The soils in Margaux are the lightest and most gravelly of the Médoc, with some also containing a high percentage of sand. Vineyards located in Cantenac and Margaux make up the core of the appelation with the best vineyard sites being located on well-drained slopes, whose lighter soils give Margaux its deft touch and silky perfumes. Further away from the water, there is a greater clay content and the wines are less dramatically perfumed.

Margaux is the most diffuse of all the Médoc appelations with a reputation for scaling the heights with irreproachable wines such as Ch. Margaux and Ch. Palmer, but also plumbing the depths, with too many other châteaux not fulfilling their potential. There has been an upward shift in recent years, but the appellation cannot yet boast the reliability of St Julien. However, the finest Margaux are exquisitely perfumed and models of refinement and subtlety which have few parallels in Bordeaux.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Margaux, Ch. Palmer, Ch. Brane-Cantenac, Ch. Rauzan-Ségla , Ch. Dufort-Vivens, Ch. Ferrière, Ch. du Tertre, Ch. Giscours, Ch. d'Angludet.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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