Château Cantenac Brown

Château Cantenac Brown is a wine estate in Margaux on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. The estate takes its name from its Scottish founder, John Lewis Brown. A distinctive Tudor-style château was built in 1806. Cantenac Brown is a Third Growth in the 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines.

The property has had several owners throughout its history, including the Browns as well as insurance group AXA. In 2019, it was acquired by Tristan Le Lous, who quickly initiated the construction of a new, eco-friendly wine cellar. Built from raw earth and untreated timber, with metre-thick walls, the cellar has no need for air-conditioning. The space has 70 stainless-steel vats, varying in capacity from 50 to 120 hectolitres. The first vintage produced in the new facility was 2023. The estate is run by managing director José Sanfins, who joined in 1989 as a trainee before taking charge in 1998.

Cantenac Brown has 75 hectares of vines. Cabernet Sauvignon is the primary grape variety, supported by Merlot and tiny proportions of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The soils range from deep Günzian gravels to smaller gravel deposits and clay-limestone. There are two red wines produced here: Château Cantenac Brown itself and a second wine, Brio de Cantenac Brown. A further five hectares of vines are planted with white grape varieties. Alto de Cantenac Brown, the estate’s dry white wine, is a blend led by Sauvignon Blanc along with Sémillon and Sauvignon Gris.

Photograph: Luc Boegly

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.

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.