The 2011 Château Brane-Cantenac is a refined Margaux with a delicate bouquet of cherries, raspberries, and cedar. It’s medium to full-bodied, with fine tannins and fresh acidity, offering a precise balance of black fruit and spice. Elegant and structured, it’s ready to drink now but will age well through 2032. One of the vintage’s quiet overachievers—elegant, complex, and confidently understated.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 92
Published: Feb 18, 2014

There is a beautiful clarity of fruit to this wine, with cherries, raspberries and flowers on the nose and palate. Full body, fine tannins and a fresh finish. Crisp and delicious. Extremely well done for the vintage. Try in 2018.

The Wine Advocate | RP 91
Published: Dec 30, 2016
Drink: 2019-2032

Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château, the 2011 Brane-Cantenac is a blend of 37% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 56.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and a pinch of Carmenère. It has a more attractive bouquet than the 2012, demonstrating more complexity and fruit intensity: blackberry and raspberry, a touch of cedar and tobacco thrown into the mix. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, the oak beautifully interwoven into the brambly red berry fruit, gently building with a hint of spice and dry tobacco on the finish. There is just a tad more substance than the 2012, yet it remains elegant, and given the vintage it is sophisticated compared to others this vintage. Tasted April 2015.

Decanter | D 90
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Drink: 2019-2028

There's a concentrated, precise quality to the nose, with black fruit and tobacco notes backing it up. Things close in through the mid-palate, emphasising the spice and suggesting this is still young and has plenty of life ahead of it. Welcome ambition in this second wine manages to not overplay the vintage, and as with the grand vin, the past year or so has really opened things up - if you have a bottle of this wine, you might want to think about opening it. 20% new oak. 61% of overall production.

Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 13.20%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon 50% Merlot

Brane-cantenac.com

Wine style
Intense, vivid colour. Very delicate, subtle fruit-driven nose with attractive floral notes, and hint of tobacco. The palate is promising, offering fine tannin, palpable energy and sorbet-fresh red berry fruit laced with cedar and pencil lead. Great balance. This wine is pure and elegant, delivering precision and typicity.

Serving conditions
Decant 1h30 to 2h before - Serve at 18°C

Ageing potential
25 to 30 years

Wine pairing
Pork fillet mignon with papaya, pan-fried oyster mushrooms and seasonal vegetables

Weather conditions
The 2011 vintage was complicated throughout the growing cycle. In addition to all our efforts, there were two key factors in obtaining high-quality wines. The first was the plateau of Brane’s soil water reserves, thanks to which the vines did not suffer from the spring drought. The second was the use of optical sorting. Sun scald, uneven ripening within bunches and between the stocks and the poor health status of certain grapes made careful grape selection especially important. It is clear that without this tool, the wines produced would not have achieved the same quality level.

Harvest dates: 9/09 to 10/10/2011
Blend: 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 1% Carmenère
VINIFICATION: In oak casks
Ageing: 18 months in French oak barrels, with 70% new