Chateau Cantenac Brown2010
RED WINE
- Producer Chateau Cantenac Brown
- Country France
- Region Bordeaux
- Appellation Margaux
- UPC 0 15643 46913 8
Reviews
James Suckling 94
A wine with firm tannins that are polished and reserved yet there's an underlying richness of fruit. Plums, blueberries and citrus character. Some tar too. Juicy and delicious to taste.
by JS, James Suckling , 2013
Wine Enthusiast 95
One of the finest wines to come from Cantenac Brown for many years, this is powerful and dense, dominated by Cabernet Franc tannins and fruits. The structure has a smooth, polished character that locates it firmly in Margaux, giving elegance and discreet fruitiness. Age this fine wine for many years.
by RV, Wine Enthusiast , 2013
Wine Spectator 92
Very fresh, with a bold display of dark blueberry, loganberry and plum fruit aromas and flavors that push ahead, followed by singed spice, black licorice and toasty vanilla bean notes. Displays a polished feel on the finish, kept honest by a buried charcoal accent. Shows plenty of length for the cellar. Best from 2014 through 2028.
by JM, Wine Spectator , 2013
Wine Advocate 94+
The greatest Cantenac Brown I have ever tasted, the 2010 is one for the ages. Dense purple, with an extraordinary nose of sweet forest floor, blackberry jam, pen ink and graphite, this wine soars from the glass, giving it an aromatic dimension and intensity I have never seen from this estate. The tannins are present, as they are in most Cantenac Browns, but the wine's sweetness, broad, skyscraper-like mouthfeel, dense, purple color and spectacular length (close to a minute) make this a giant classic and a fabulous sleeper of the vintage that still remains under-priced, considering how great its potential may be. This is a wine for those with cold cellars and youthful DNA. It is going to need at least a decade of cellaring and should last for 20-40 years. A classic!
by RP, Wine Advocate , 2013
Vinous Media 94
The 2010 Cantenac Brown performed extremely well in the Southwold blind tasting. Here, the nose demands coaxing from the glass before revealing beautifully defined blackberry, boysenberry, earth and mint aromas, perhaps a little more floral than a couple of years ago. Medium-bodied on the palate, this 2010 is focused and delivers plenty of substance; it's quite linear at the moment, yet sophisticated, and is as fresh as a daisy on the finish. Superb.
by NM, Vinous Media , 2021
Technical Details
Vineyard
Our loyal vineyard crew works hard to assure our harvests to be of utmost quality down to the last grape, year after year. This year, the harvest was longer than usual, and it spread out over 5 weeks with a total of 12 picking days. This demonstrates our precise vineyard work. We waited patiently for the perfect maturity of each and every plot.Our ally was the great weather, all the way though the end of harvest. Fall gave us an Indian summer with warm days and cool nights.
The harvest plots rapidly changed their leaf color as if to say they had let go after all their hard work.
Vinification
Today the work in our cellars is put together perfectly, and with such perfect grapes to work with, it all becomes even simpler.The high alcohol and high tannin potential lead us to choose a low temperature fermentation(26°C/27°C) to keep the fruit flavor at a maximum. The color came through immediately, showing great signs of maturity. The first run just was exceptionally thick. One of our cellar workers, Bruno Hydie, who has seen over 20 vintages here, said he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Our first tastings of this wine confirmed the great potential of this vintage
Vintage
Great vintages follow one another, but they are never the same. The 2010 vintage is much different that of 2009.The freshness of this vintage is remarkable with such naturally high alcohol content. Amazingly, the acid, alcohol, and tannins form a perfect harmony. Surely this is what makes the 2010 vintage so powerful. It’s exceptional to see how such harmony, with all the extraordinary elements, gives us such a "sumptuous" wine.Weather
The 2010 growing season was marked by dry weather all over the region. Winter to summer was very cold, with temperatures 2-3°C below the normal average. The weather started off mild in April, but May was much cooler. Overall, the weather has remained cool for two consecutive years, with morning frost at the point of harvest on October 18th. The solar weather patterns for the 2010 season are notable and similar those of 2009. The month of April was exceptionally warm and sunny.Both years, 2009 and 2010, had great amounts of sun, even more than the great 2005 vintage year.