Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.0

NV. 6.3.26. — a month ago

Saman Hosseini

Writer Maison Abattoir

9.4

Mushroom duxelles, hazelnuts, caramelized apple, lively bead, long crisp finish.

8 years on the lees.
D: 08.2015
2g
Becky Wasserman & Co. — 6 years ago

Darren Dittrich

8.9

Affordable and quaffable Pinot + Gamay blend. I expected to see "passe-tout-grains" on the label to indicate the cuvée, but there's no mention of the blend that I could find. Pinot Noir and Gamay are co-fermented, and the typical Jolly Rancher carbonic maceration notes are prominent, but with a lighter weight and some savory and sour-cherry overtones from the Pinot. Great every-day food-friendly wine with low ABV. If you don’t like Beaujolais for some reason, you can skip this one. Total Wine/Alfio Moriconi. — 7 years ago

Matt Perlman

9.3

Having my dessert first. Co-fermented field blend of Alsatian varietals. Viscous texture, plenty of sweet flavors of course but not to the point of being cloying. Honey cake, dried apricot, orange, acacia, a little petrol and botrytis, acid is not front and center but playing a strong supporting role to hold things together — 8 years ago

Edward Allen

9.2

Quite good. Produced and bottled in Boulder, CO — 8 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.4

I have a six-pack of this 05. I thought after 10 years in bottle, it would be interesting to check in on its evolution. While tasty, I’ll wait another 8-10 to open another. Even after 2-3 hours in the decanter, it’s still a very young adolescent. On the nose, slightly sour blackberries & dark cherries, dark currants, baked black plum, haunting blue fruits, anise, whiff of spice, steeped tea, dry stones, dry crushed rocks with dry top soil, caramel, vanilla with fresh & dry red florals. The body is thick & full. Tannins are starting to round out. It’s velvety on the palate. The fruits are; bright, fresh & ripe and really show the greatness of the 05 vintage. Dark currants, blackberries, dark cherries, baked black plum, haunting blue fruits, baked strawberries, cherries, raspberries on the long set, dark spice, clay & loamy dry top soil with crushed rocks, dry stones, cigar with ash, graphite, dry stems, slight herbaceous character, mint, used leather, clove, caramel, vanilla, fresh & dry red florals with violets. The round acidity is about perfect. The structure and length are still strong. The balance is in harmony. As for the long finish, it’s lush, ruby, rich and well polished. Photos of; Chateau Brane Cantenac, large wood vats, Henri Lurton and Estate vines. Producer notes and history...Chateau Brane Cantenac began in the early 17th century. At the time, the estate was known as Domaine Guilhem Hosten. Even that far back, wine was produced from the property. In fact, the wine was so highly regarded it was one of the more expensive wines in Bordeaux. It sold for almost as much money as Brane Mouton. This is interesting because of who went on to buy the vineyard in the 1800’s. The Baron of Brane, also known as “Napoleon of the Vineyards”, purchased the Chateau in 1833. At the time of the sale, the estate was called Chateau Gorce-Guy. To get the funds needed to purchase the Margaux vineyard, the Baron sold what is now called Mouton Rothschild, which was at the time of the sale, known as Chateau Brane-Mouton. Not such a good move with hundreds of years in hindsight! In 1838, the Baron renamed property taking his name and the name of the sector where the vineyards were located and called it Chateau Brane Cantenac. The Chateau later passed to the Roy family, who were well-known in the Margaux appellation in those days, as they owned Chateau d’issan. Moving ahead to 1920, the Societe des Grands Crus de France, a group of merchants and growers that owned several chateaux located in the Medoc including; Chateau Margaux, Chateau Giscours, and Chateau Lagrange in St. Julien, purchased Chateau Brane Cantenac. Five years later, M. Recapet and his son-in-law, François Lurton, took over Brane Cantenac along with Chateau Margaux. Lucien Lurton (the son of François Lurton) inherited Brane Cantenac in 1956. Today, the estate is still in the hands of the Lurton family. Brane Cantenac is owned and run by Henri Lurton. After being given the responsibility of managing Brane Cantenac, it was under the direction of Henri Lurton that large portions of the vineyard were replanted. Vine densities were increased, the drainage systems were improved and the plantings were also, slowly changed. The vineyard of Brane Cantenac is planted to 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc and .5% Carmenere. Carmenere was used for the first time in the 2011 vintage. The only other Chateau I know that still uses Carmenere is Clerc Milon. The 75 hectare Left Bank vineyard of Brane Cantenac is essentially unchanged since it earned Second Growth status in the 1855 Classification. At least that is the case with the 45 hectares used to produce the Grand Vin of Brane Cantenac. Those 45 hectares are planted surrounding the Chateau. Those vines are located just in front of the Cantenac plateau and are the best terroir that Brane Cantenac owns. They have other parcels, which are further inland and much of those grapes are placed into their second wine, Le Baron de Brane. Those additional hectares can be divided into 3 main sections. Behind the Chateau, they have 15 hectares of vines on gravel and sand, 10 hectares across the road with sand, gravel and iron and a 13 hectare parcel with gravel called Notton, which is used for their second wine. The vineyard is planted to a vine density that ranges from 6,666 vines per hectare on the plateau and up to 8,000 vines per hectare for the vines located behind chateau, in their sandier soils. The higher levels of vine density are always found in the newer plantings. The terroir of Brane Cantenac consists of deep gravel, sand and clay soil. Experiments in the vineyards are currently looking at becoming more organic in their vineyard management. Today, more than 25% of Brane Cantenac is farmed using organic farming techniques. It is expected that over time, the amount of hectares farmed with organic methods will be increased. Brane Cantenac has gone through 2 relatively recent modernization’s in 1999, when they added began adding the first of their smaller vats to allow for parcel by parcel vinification and then again in 2015 when they completed a much more complete renovation of their cellars and vat rooms. While Brane Cantenac is a traditional producer, they are no stranger to technology as they were one of the first estates to embrace optical grape sorting machines. In very wet vintages, they can also use reverse osmosis. To produce the wine of Chateau Brane Cantenac, the wine is vinified in a combination of temperature controlled, traditional, 22 oak vats, 18 concrete tanks and 20 stainless steel vats that vary in size from 40 hectoliters all the way up to 200 hectoliters, which allows for parcel by parcel vinification. 40% of the fermentation takes place in the oak vats. The oldest vines are vinified in vats that are selected to allow for separate parcel by parcel vinification. The younger vines are vinified more often together in the same vats. However, the Carmenere is entirely micro-vinified, meaning that those grapes were completely vinified in barrel, using micro-vinification techniques. This can also happen because the amount of grapes produced is so small. Some vats can be co-inoculated, meaning they go through alcoholic fermentation and malolactic fermentation simultaneously. At Chateau Brane Cantenac, malolactic fermentation takes place in a combination of French oak tanks and barrels. The wine of Brane Cantenac is aged in an average of 60% new, French oak barrels for 18 months before bottling. The initial 2 months of aging is done with the wine on its lees, which adds more depth to the wine. There second wine is Le Baron de Brane. Le Baron de Brane is not new. In fact, previously, the second wine went under the name of Chateau Notton, which took its name from one of the main parcels where the grapes were planted. During the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s, having a second wine was important as the estate declassified 3 vintages, due to extremely poor, weather conditions in 1956, 1960 and 1963. Production of Chateau Brane Cantenac is about 11,000 cases per year. — 8 years ago

Stefan Dolhain

8.9

2012 vintage. Alexandre de Malet Roquefort (owner of Premier Grand Cru Classé La Gaffelière, Chapelle d'Aliénor Bordeaux Supérieur and co-owner of the tiny Pomerol estate La Connivence) bought this estate in 1999. In my experience his wines are very reliable and classic, elegant and never overextracted. This medium-bodied Saint-Emilion (90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon) is a solid effort for the vintage (that generally fared much better for Merlot than Cabernet Sauvignon). Strawberry fruit and very subtle oak, freshness and balance. Drinking well now, but I feel there is more room for improvement. A nice wine nearing maturity. The only "problem" is that for the price (21,9 euro) you can buy the delicious 2015 second wine of La Gaffelière. — 6 years ago

Tom Kobylarz

9.8

One of the absolute best white wines I’ve had so far this year to date was this extraordinary Grand Cru Chablis from 2006. I think we caught this wine at the absolute perfect time to drink. Grenouilles is French for frog, more on that below.
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The color on this was perfect, a vibrant light gold and yellow, watery at the rim. The nose was also in perfect condition, notes of flint, crushed oyster shell, a touch of smoke, allied with fresh Asian pear and crisp Fuji apple. The wind absolutely jumped out of the glass, the nose was so pronounced. The palage took it another level up with a perfect expression of what the nose was giving, all the while wrapped up in a perfect medium bodied majorly dense and complex wine. Medium plus acidity and very long on the finish.
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Formed in 1923, la Chablisienne is a co-op winery based of course in Chablis. As I have gone deeper into the rabbit hole of wine I tend to find these amazing co-ops which I wish I could have known about earlier as the wines are so impeccably good and priced so reasonably well. They produce something like 30 different wines off from the Chardonnay grape and all from vineyards within the AOC borders of Chablis.
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The Grenouilles climat is the smallest of the 7 Chablis Grand Cru climat at 9.38 hectares. It has soils that consist of upper and middle layers of Kimmeridgian, alternating with limestone and marl that are studded with fossilised seashells.
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The first vines to grow at the bottom of this hill were close to the River Serein and frogs no doubt came to keep the winegrowers company. — 7 years ago

dan boedeker

9.0

Impressive home grown Cabernet. Elevating expectations for CO wine. — 8 years ago

Steve Anderson

9.3

Tasting pour at Hospice du Rhône Saturday Grand Tasting. Second of six excellent wines from Hardy and Co. seemed lighter than previous SRR, great mouthfeel. — 8 years ago

jerod peitsmeyer

9.8

these guys are killing it — 9 years ago

Scott Barber

Wine Educator Meadowood Napa Valley

9.2

Taut mineral driven GC Chablis. Fruit profile is a little toward the ripe side for the vineyard and there's noticeable new oak on it. Not the best but really good for a co-op — 9 years ago

admiral von schnauzer

9.2

Wild. Unsure what exactly to expect since the reputation was "he did something to the wine". Barrel samples were off the hizzie, but the final product just seemed to skew so modern. And then a jillion years later.. it is still such.

Dark dark dark. Cherry cherry cherry. Opened rather nicely post decant. A multitide of flavors and aromas greeted us over the course of the next hour. Sweet, almost port like without the heat. Cool. @northforktable — 10 years ago

Stefan Dolhain

9.0

2018 vintage. Another spectacular value from the Côtes de Bordeaux, this time from Blaye. From 79 hectares of vines on sandy gravel soils. A blend of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet sauvignon and 5% Malbec. Again I feel sorry for owner Jean François Reaud that he has to sell such a good wine at silly prices (4,95 euro consumer price!). Even at twice the price it would be great value. Subtle nose with ripe black (blueberries, cassis) and red fruits (raspberry) with a subtle floral touch. The taste is amazingly elegant, the fruit is fresh and crisp, with a good soft tannic backbone, some complexity, moderate alcohol (abv. 13%) and very good length. Extraordinary value. Vignobles Gabriel & co. — 6 years ago

Jeremy Shanker

Sommelier at RN74

9.1

Grand cru of Contra Costa — 7 years ago

Neal Dessouky

9.6

OK. I have a six pack of this which has the disgorgement date of my only child’s birthdate. So, so cool right? I’d planned to keep these for a while, but after tasting someone else’s bottle a few months ago which was brought through the US importer, Rare Wine Co, which showed very, surprisingly advanced, I thought to begin my kid’s birthDAY 6-pack early, so we didn’t miss the magic of this wine just in case. Wow, best Initial I’ve ever had and not at all advanced. Fresh, very long and textbook initial in every way. Glad to have checked in since this will@last many years and ill slow down on popping their corks. Will be a great wine for my son for many, 5 to be exact, birthdays to come. — 8 years ago

dan boedeker

9.3

Drinking local in the Grand Valley AVA (Palisade CO). Such a fun place to visit....wineries on bike, exceptionally lazy today so electric assisted (like a golf cart on two wheels). Colorado has a lot of mediocre wine but Petite Verdot has been an exception. Dark fruit, oaked, old world feel. Surprising. — 8 years ago

Benoit Duhamel

9.0

Tout d’un bloc. Peu complexe, unidimensionnel. Texture soyeuse. Fera peut-être un grand vin, mais il faudra attendre longtemps... — 8 years ago

Josh Trowbridge

9.4

Pleasant Valley Pinot Noir that taste like a Grand Cru Burgundy....#badasswine — 9 years ago

Brandon Boesch

9.8

2015farmhouse saison in red wine barrels. Huge beer exploding with flavor and funk. Very Belgian in flavor with funk for days and the backbone of red wine barrels. Amazing! — 9 years ago

with Randy