critic reviews
Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2023 Cantenac Brown opens with soft-spoken, savory notes of wild sage, tapenade, and spice box leading to a core of fresh blackberries and black raspberries. The medium-bodied palate delivers expressive black fruit flavors with invigorating red berry accents and a lightly chewy texture, finishing on a peppery note.
First year in the new 100% gravity-fed cellar for this superb estate that is increasingly making its presence felt - helped not just by the new eco-concious winery but by the extra 10ha of excellent Margaux terroir, complete with old vine Cabernet Sauvignon on fine gravel, bought in 2020. It's a clear success in 2023, and you'll find plenty of vibrant fruit, majoring on spiced plum and cassis, sinewy tannins, liqourice bud, tobacco, mint and campfire smoke. Conveys coiled energy and will age well. An excellent example of a 94 point 'buy' signal. José Sanfins director.
The 2023 Cantenac Brown, now with its new eco-friendly winery under the helm of winemaker José Sanfins, has a lot of fruit intensity on the nose: blackberry and wild strawberry, with touches of melted tar and sous-bois. It's quite forward and more fruit-driven that expected. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, very pliant tannins. It's impressively weighty and notably focused, though maybe not quite delivering the complexity and terroir expression on the finish as I found with the previous vintage.
The first vintage produced in the estate's new state-of-the-art winery, the 2023 Cantenac Brown has turned out very well indeed, offering up aromas of dark berries, pencil shavings and violets, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and layered palate that's serious and precise, concluding with a long, resonant finish. This blend of 71.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot and 1.5% Cabernet Franc represents 52% of the estate's production; and it reflects both the new winery's enhanced capabilities, along with the presence of old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon derived from holdings recently acquired in the heart of the plateau of Margaux.