Château Cantemerle: Tasting & Drinking
An estate I suspect more popular with those who drink the wine rather than drink the label, Château Cantemerle can be found in the hinterland that lies between the five communes of the Margaux appellation, to the north, and the Bordeaux city suburbs to the south. While châteaux in this corner of Bordeaux have no access to a grand appellation like that bestowed upon their cousins to the north, this being Haut-Médoc territory, there is still plenty of drinking potential. This applies not only to the two classed growths found here, of which Château Cantemerle is one and Château La Lagune the other, but also to a number of unclassified and cru bourgeois properties.
The wines, in my experience, offer very good value, and I feel they have maintained (and perhaps improved slightly) the quality offered in recent good vintages. After many good encounters with the 1996 and 2000 vintages, I have seen strong performances in 2005, 2009 and 2010, wines which match or perhaps outclassed the quality of those wines produced in 1996 or 2000. After that there was a little bit of a lull, simply a run of unfavourable vintages for the region, but the results in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were very positive. I also liked the 2022, although I could not help feeling that I expected more in such a strong vintage. I suspect the vintage that will deliver that ‘more’ will be 2025, which surely benefited from new cellars, and showed well as a barrel sample. I look forward to reassessing when the time comes.
The tasting notes presented below include a number of vintages of Château Cantemerle; my predilection for the 1996 vintage reflects the purchase of a case many years ago; I have enjoyed watching the early development of this wine over the past few years. It has been instructive not only with regard to Château Cantemerle and its wines, but to understanding how a wine ages over time, how it may close down and open up. Admittedly, this seems less of a concern with modern Bordeaux than the wines being made here only twenty years ago, but I learnt something just the same.
Tasting more recent vintages only confirms my belief that this is a good value property that only label drinkers should overlook. If purchased at the right price, and stored correctly (I have had one or two more mature examples obviously suffering from poor storage), Château Cantemerle can offer a decade and more of drinking pleasure. Here’s to the drinkers, and not the label collectors. (20/10/04, updated 26/1/06, 19/10/06, 28/1/16, 17/7/26)
