Château Brane Cantenac, 2ème Cru Classé, Margaux, 2021

Name: Château Brane Cantenac, 2ème Cru Classé, Margaux
Brand: Château Brane-Cantenac
Price: 359.14 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2012 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

74% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmenere with 11.3% press wine and weighing in at 12.7% alcohol. This hails exclusively from the plateau they call terrace IV, where Henri Lurton and his team have grafted Cabernet Sauvignon plants onto old Merlot rootstock. The additional Cabernet adds an aromatic complexity and freshness. They were very careful with extractions and appear to have produced a really harmonious and successful 2021. Wonderful florality, cool cherries and blood orange. Great definition to the fruit, pure, juicy, bittersweet fruit – the mid-palate is packed with sleek, refined berries supported by beams of acidity. This is a splendid Brane Cantenac sustained by supple, fine tannins. Exquisite.

critic reviews

92/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2021 Brane-Cantenac clearly has less fruit than the 2019 and 2020, though it retains delineation and focus as blackberry meets graphite and pencil shavings. It simmers with anticipation, but will never deliver aromatics like the previous two vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit and fine delineation, not as complex or as pixelated as the best vintages, but there is plenty of fruit on the finish and a surprisingly sweet aftertaste. Give this four to five years in bottle. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château in September 2025.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2049

date of review 09/2025

94/100Jane Anson,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Slow unroll, juicy berry fruit, this is blueberry and raspberry coulis, some juicy hedgerow character, slate, campfire, gunsmoke, a delicious wine in the style of 2017. A cooler vintage, but with better frost protection than in 2017, allowing for a 4hl/h yield, 3.56ph, 100% new French oak barrels, harvest September 23 to October 7. Eric Boissenot consultant, Henri Lurton owner, Christophe Capdeville technical director.

DRINKING WINDOW 2028 - 2046

date of review 09/2025

94/100Lisa Perrotti-Brown,The Wine Independent

The 2021 Brane-Cantenac is deep garnet-purple in color. After a swirl or two, notes of black raspberries, juicy blackberries, and cassis come barreling out of the glass, plus nuances of dried herbs and graphite. The light to medium-bodied palate offers great tension and intensity, with fine-grained tannins and a long, savory finish.

DRINKING WINDOW 2026 - 2036

date of review 04/2024

94/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

One of the few with violet reflections to the ruby body, with austerity and cool vintage expression of blueberry and raspberry fruits, well defined and sculpted, good juice and lift, impressive purity and power, with a sandalwood swirl of 100% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 23 to October 7, 41hl/h yield.

DRINKING WINDOW 2027 - 2041

date of review 04/2024