Château Brane-Cantenac, 2025
Château Brane-Cantenac, 2025
- 75cl
- 13.3%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028.
Château Brane-Cantenac stands as one of Margaux's most aristocratic estates, crafting wines that epitomise the commune's silk-and-steel character. This second growth from the Left Bank blends Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and a touch of Cabernet Franc, creating wines of remarkable elegance and longevity.
The 75 hectares of vineyards sit on deep Günzian gravel beds mixed with sand and clay, the classic terroir that defines great Margaux. The free-draining gravel forces vine roots deep, creating concentration while the underlying clay provides water retention during dry spells. This combination, coupled with Margaux's temperate microclimate moderated by the nearby Gironde estuary, produces wines with exceptional finesse and aromatic complexity. The terroir naturally favours Cabernet Sauvignon while allowing Merlot to add roundness and early appeal.
Margaux is the most elegant and perfumed of the Left Bank's great communes, covering 1,400 hectares across five villages including Margaux itself. The appellation's deep gravel soils over limestone and clay produce wines with distinctive floral aromatics and silky tannins, contrasting with the power of Pauillac or Saint-Julien. Margaux wines are known for their violet and rose petal perfume, cedar spice, and graceful ageing potential. The commune hosts 21 classified growths, including the legendary Château Margaux itself.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
What the critics say:
"Black cherries, currants, roses, violets, spice, and forest floor create the aromatics. On the palate, the elegance and purity of the fruit are instantly recognizable. The lift and vibrancy, paired with concentration and sensuality, set this apart. The finish starts strong and continues seamlessly. 2025 marks the Lurton family's 100th anniversary of owning the vineyard. You can expect to see a special label celebrating the occasion. The 2025 is in competition with the 2022 as the best vintage ever produced at the estate. The wine blends 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 1% Carmenere, and 1% Cabernet Franc. 13.3% ABV, 3.62 pH. Harvesting took place September 2 - September 19. Yields were 32 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2029-2065."
"Cassis, graphite, liquid violets, and tobacco all define the 2025 Château Brane-Cantenac, a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 1% each Cabernet Franc, Carménère, and Petit Verdot that's being raised in 100% new French oak. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a focused, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful concentration and depth, integrated acidity, and a great finish. Hitting 13.5% alcohol, it's a brilliant success in the vintage and should be snatched up by readers."
"Look out for the special centennial label to mark 100 years of the Lurton family's ownership. This is divine aromatically and yet also delivers an incredible density and compactness in the mid-palate that only Brane seems to be able to achieve with this much clarity, finesse, elegance and precision. There's a gentle and very natural sweetness to the aromatics. This is a wine of a paradoxical brilliance given the constrast between its staggering freshness and the climatic conditions from which it was forged. The floral notes are delicate and subtle - lily of the valley, perhaps a little mimosa and iris. There's a touch of incense too. Brane Cantenac in 2025 is texturally sublime, with an amazing sensation of layering and a dynamic freshness that seems to well up from below very naturally. Quite simply, this is a triumph."
"This is luscious and full of wonderfully bright fruits, great concentration, cushion of air underneath, high Cabernet and it comes through in the floral aromatics, clearly a plentiful tannic structure but luscious and layered damson and black cherry. Yes yes yes. 12.10% press wine. 3.62 pH. Tasted twice. 100 years of the Lurtons at Brane."
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Château Brane-Cantenac
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