Château Brane-Cantenac 2016

This firm, structured wine is solid with tannins and with the weight associated with the vintage. The fruitiness is as important, an explosion of rich berry flavors that will give pleasure as the wine matures. Drink from 2025.

Captivating cedar, tobacco and dark blackcurrant fruit, sinewy and taut. The palate is still firm and rigid, quite stately in fact, with a ton of savoury structure. Elegant structure with a tannic crunch. A great one to squirrel away and watch develop further. Deep, dark, bramble fruit with a slick lick of oak, but it’s holding everything in reserve. Nominated by Ch'ng Poh Tiong.

So much ripe and sweet tobacco on the nose with currant and blackberry character. Full body, intense tannins with density and beauty. It’s a wine with great structure and panache for this estate. Try after 2024.

The 2016 Brane-Cantenac is very pretty and nuanced. The richness of the year comes through, and yet there is a good bit of freshness and energy as well to balance things out nicely. Brane-Cantenac offers a fine expression of the year in a wine that will drink well with minimal cellaring. Time in the glass brings out an attractive register of floral notes that add to the wine's undeniable appeal.

Still dark in color, the wine is clearly powerful, with notes of black tea, flowers, dark Cuban cigars, and black cherries. Balanced, fresh, harmonious, long, and rich, there is lift, energy, length, intensity, and purity with a chalky edge to the finish. This is not a wine for today, you need some patience before it shows really well. If you are not familiar with the level of wine coming from Brane Cantenac these days, you should be. Drink from 2030-2060.

Deep dark ruby, opaque at the core with a discreet brightening on the rim. There are delicate floral aromas in the background to the ripe sweet cherry, blackberry jam and subtle fine oak nuances. Juicy, elegant and fruity with well-integrated tannins and red berry flavours, the wine is minerally and fresh on the palate with a lingering finish and the potential to age well.

Pure and ripe nose with floral dark fruit, violet, cassis, plum, tobacco, Fine leather and discreet oak. Dense and savoury with grainy tannin, coffee, mocha, light toastiness with crushed black fruit, crème de cassis, and a very long lingering finish with bright freshness and savoury dark fruit with some sage and roasted notes, elegant and powerful. Very good.

I missed this wine in my recent 2016 Bordeaux report, but I was able to purchase a bottle locally. A tremendous Margaux, the 2016 offers the quintessential elegance of the appellation as well as plenty of density, concentration, and ripe tannins. Beautiful notes of blackcurrants, tobacco leaf, cedarwood, and flowery incense all emerge from the glass, and it builds nicely with air, offering medium to full body, flawless balance, and a great finish. This is classic Margaux as well as a classic 2016. It’s already approachable, and I doubt it will close down, yet it’s going to develop additional nuances with another 4-6 years of bottle age and have 25-30 years of prime drinking.

Deep purple with a garnet glint at the rim. An intoxicating bouquet: plenty of blackberry and sour cherry, followed by violet, a touch of Earl Grey and liquorice. On the elegant palate, juicy with a fine bite and lots of potential. With age it will gain a bit more depth, but its finesse already shows its outstanding class. Long finish with blackcurrant and elderberry pastilles. Trending toward an even higher score—the upward flight continues! 18.5+/20

Kunz Fassprobe 17: Mineral, slightly austere bouquet with red and blue berries, blueberries, red plums, raspberries and balsa wood. Silky, elegant palate with good fruit, finely grained tannins, sweet aromatics, a finely muscular structure and a long finish.

Mineral, herbal bouquet; red and blue berries, blueberries, red plums, raspberries, balsa wood. Silky, elegant palate with good fruit, finely sandy tannins, sweet aromatics, a finely muscular structure, and a long finish. 17/20 2024 - 2038

Still reserved for now, but with immense potential and a muscular, fruit-driven core just waiting to express itself. patience

Nose of luscious red fruit, bramble, floral notes. Full-bodied on the palate, with lovely juicy fruit, tight-knit tannins, slightly drying, and a fine, long finish.

Deep, dense garnet red with purple highlights. Great complexity and breadth in Brane’s bouquet. I find the classic Margaux notes with a touch of freshness. Fruit is omnipresent through aromas of cherries, blackberries and redcurrants. Spicy, subtly oaky notes join in, with light hints of toast. What I like, in this configuration, is that the oak is just one player among others; I’d even say it stays in the background, simply adding a delicate aromatic dimension. The attack is generous, graceful and creamy. On the palate, the wine is impressive in the way it settles in. It is elegant, refined and powerful. To me, that is what defines a great wine: the ability to reconcile power, stature and finesse. Compared with the en primeur tastings, the wine has made a huge leap forward, both in expression and density. Above all, I note an excellent symbiosis between powerful tannins and a vibrant structure. The 2016 vintage joins 2015 in the pantheon of great Brane-Cantenac, and I think it will surpass it over time. Once again, a major success: a complex, expressive, seductive, convincing and thrilling wine. I hadn’t grasped it this well during the en primeur tastings. Mea culpa!

For the first time, this wine almost catches up with the 2015 in a different style, with a slightly less expressive nose for now and a bit less volume, but between the mid-palate and the finish, it gathers pace, glides, builds and ends deep and noble, while showing a very precise texture. Don’t taste it yet.