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A Visit to Brane-Cantenac, October 2011

As I drew my car to a halt in the grounds of the rather dainty château at Brane-Cantenac it felt remarkably familiar, despite my never having visited this property before. Tasted its wines, yes; I've had regular appointments with the wines over the years, both in London with the Union des Grands Crus tastings, and in Bordeaux during the primeurs. Driven past it, yes; the Route d'Arsac is a useful thoroughfare which heads north towards the great communes of the Médoc, joining with the better-known D2 as it reaches Margaux. But visited? No, never; Brane-Cantenac was one of a handful of properties in and around Cantenac, one of the principal communes of the Margaux appellation, on whose door I had never knocked. Happily it was now time to put that right.

As I arrived the skies overhead began to darken, thanks to a blanket of thick, grey cloud, and the first few drops of rain began to fall. It had been threatening to do this all day, ever since my first appointment at Château Talbot at 9am, so it was no great surprise. I hurried over to the door on the far side of the courtyard where Christophe Capdeville, Brane-Cantenac's technical director was waiting, together with Maria Martinez-Ojeda. Maria's role here was translate for me (I have a little French, but I am always grateful for some assistance when I become unstuck, not an infrequent occurrence) but - having tasted with her later in the day - she also clearly has a very deep knowledge and understanding of the wines. After our brief introductions we immediately headed out into the vineyard, Maria stopping only to pick up some umbrellas to ward off the increasingly heavy rain. Unfortunately for me I am not skilled in managing three objects - one notebook, one pen and one umbrella - with only two hands. If I recall correctly Maria offered to hold my umbrella for me, but as that would have induced diva-esque feelings of Jennifer Lopez proportions I declined, and soldiered on unassisted. The result was a close shave for Christophe as my poorly controlled umbrella wandered about in the wind, coming close to removing his right eye at one point. Ooops!

The Vineyards

Despite having to duck and dodge the tip of my umbrella, Christophe maintained his composure and still managed to divulge some information regarding the vineyards; these amount to 75 hectares and have been subject to intensive soil-mapping following Henri Lurton taking full control in 1992. Subsequently there has been a gradual increase in the proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon planted here, although only in those areas where the vineyard studies showed the soil to be suited to this variety. Broadly speaking, the mapping process revealed three main terroirs at Brane-Cantenac; the first and the most valued is a large sweep of gravel at the top of the Margaux-Cantenac plateau, the Plateau de Brane as it is also known, at a height of about 22 metres above sea level. The value of this land is in the thick layer of gravel - up to 12 metres deep in places - which sits on top and which retains the heat of the sun each day, with a balanced water supply from the clay below, says Christophe Capdeville. The water table is fairly deep, about 6 metres down, and the roots drink deep as a result, their growth downwards encouraged by superficial ploughing. The wines are marked by high-quality tannins with a silky-velvety presence, and even if he extracts hard this seems to remain true, Capdeville reassured me.

The second section is centred around the château, 15 hectares which formed the heart of the original Brane estate. Here there is still gravel, but a higher proportion of sandy soil, and no clay. The water table is not so deep here, lying only about 3 metres below the surface, and the fruit harvested here usually develops tannins that are somewhat more robust. The third section is on the other side of the Route d'Arsac; this is La Verdotte, a 10-hectare vineyard planted 35 years ago; here the soil is a gravelly sand again, managed using organic methods during 2010, and currently undergoing replanting. After these three principal sections there is a fourth vineyard, Notton, a 13-hectare plot on coarse gravel over clay, and more distant from the estate. This saw extensive work in 1994, including new field drains and replanting; it is excluded from the three main terroirs as the wines of Notton are bottled separately from those of Brane-Cantenac.

The vines are predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon which accounts for 55% of the total, with 40% Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.5% Carmenère. Petit Verdot doesn't have a significant role here; it does still play its part in Bordeaux, but usually on more clay-rich and humid terroirs, says Capdeville, often closer to the river, and thus not at Brane-Cantenac which lies at the 'drier' end of the plateau. The 0.5-hectare plot of Carmenère is an experiment, planted in order to determine how useful it may be to Brane-Cantenac in the future, as climate change advances; Carmenère is a late-maturing variety, ripening a full two weeks after Cabernet Sauvignon, which in itself follows on from Merlot. Problematic varieties including late ripeners and those susceptible to shot berries - Carmenère is guilty on both counts - have largely been eradicated from the Bordeaux vineyard over the years, but as temperatures rise the problem becomes ripening too early rather than too late and these varieties may gain in popularity once again. This small plot was established in 2007, the first harvest being 2009.

The Cellars

Christophe Capdeville arrived at Brane-Cantenac in 1990, Henri Lurton two years later, and once the two had the vineyard developments underway - the aforementioned mapping, extensive retrellising, replanting as required - their attentions were turned towards the cellars. New fermentation vessels more suited to the newly defined vineyard plots were installed, and in 1994 they shifted the malolactic fermentation into barrel. This is continued today, with about half of the annual production undergoing malolactic in barrel, usually between 500 and 600 barrels. In 1997 new oak fermentation vats were installed, and in 1999 the buildings were updated, with new greener technologies and materials introduced where possible.

At harvest time the fruit is picked by hand and then transported in from the vines using the Air Tec system which cushions the fruit, protecting it from damage with its pneumatic suspension. Once in the reception area the fruit is emptied by gentle vibration, further protecting it from damage. It also sees a double sorting, once in the vineyard on a Viniclean table, and a second time upon arrival in the cellar. Here the fruit is mechanically destemmed and then sorted using optical technology, in this case a Delta Vistalys machine by Bucher Vaslin. Clearly there is no shying away from new technologies at Brane-Cantenac; indeed, the Air Tec system was developed and modified principally by Henri Lurton. Today it can be found not just here but also at Léoville-Las-Cases, Calon-Ségur and Pichon-Lalande.

The fermentation is undertaken in the aforementioned wooden vats, installed in 1997; this decision is in part down to Christophe who favours this material following positive experiences when working at Talbot and Cantemerle. Today all the highest-quality fruit goes into oak from the very beginning, temperature control of the fermenting must being achieved by an internal system within the vats.

The 2011 Vintage

These notes provide only a taster of what I learnt during my time spent at Brane-Cantenac; I passed more than three hours in the company of Christophe and Maria, and by the time we parted company what little light was managing to penetrate the thick, grey cloud-cover was fading fast. I will include most of the above detail, plus the finer points of fermentation in an update to my Brane-Cantenac profile. But I cannot progress to my tasting notes without a few words on the 2011 vintage.

Vintage reports for 2011 are already revealing a story of unsettled weather and a less than perfect growing season; nevertheless Capdeville remains upbeat in his summing up of the vintage. Yields were down to just 30 hl/ha, set against a ten-year average of 45 hl/ha. One factor in this reduction was a June hailstorm which settled over Margaux, just to the north of Cantenac, causing significant damage there. At Brane-Cantenac the affected plots mostly tend to feed into the second wine, so the damage was of a lesser nature. In addition there were three or four days of extreme heat when the thermometers climbed above 40ºC, producing smaller scorched berries, another reason why yields may be down. As for quality, I will have to wait until the primeur tastings; somehow I don't think an extrapolation from a taste of the 2011 Carmenère to the likely quality of Brane-Cantenac would be appropriate. Nevertheless, there is more to quality than yield; the Bordelais are as upbeat as ever on the latest vintage, but they don't seem to be singing with the same gusto as they did after 2009 and 2010.

With tasting in mind, I finished my visit at Brane-Cantenac with a ten-vintage vertical, starting with the 2000 vintage and working my way forward in time, finishing with a barrel sample of the 2010 and a varietal sample of the aforementioned Carmenère, from the 2011 vintage. During my all-too-brief four days in Bordeaux there was no visit more fascinating or informative as this one. Most importantly of all perhaps there was no other visit which demonstrated so comprehensively the quality of the estate's wines, opening my eyes to the huge amount of work that the team at Brane-Cantenac have undertaken in order to improve quality and to put the very best possible wine in the bottle. Perhaps the most notable vintage here was 2010, which seemed so much more convincing than my tasting during the primeurs in 2011. There are two sides to this finding; first, we must bear in mind that these are barrel samples, and some degree of variation is to be expected; the most valuable and reliable assessment will come when the wine is in bottle. Second, despite this cautionary note, I am increasingly convinced by the 2010 vintage across the board. Whereas the 2009 continues to woo many with its flesh and velvet, it is actually quite an atypical vintage for the region (the same was said early on of 1982 of course). But 2010 shows a more concerted and classic concentration, with dark linear fruit sitting around a tight tannic core. It reminds me more of the 1996 left bank wines. In other words, they are very good indeed. (14/2/12)

A Visit to Brane-Cantenac, October 2011 - Tasting Notes

Tasted in October 2011. All my notes on the wines of Château Brane-Cantenac, including those below, are collated under my Château Brane-Cantenac profile. Click to locate stockists.