CHATEAU CANTENAC BROWN 2020

Winemaker Notes
The ripeness is outstanding, dark in color, the aromas are refined, complex and spicy, the tannins are elegant and sexy, with the sensation of a balanced power. It stands up the challenge of the 2018 and 2019 vintages, with a pretty dash of supplementary freshness. 2020 is also and open window to the future.

Blend: 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot

Critical Acclaim
V97Vinous
The 2020 Cantenac Brown is an outrageously beautiful wine. Ample, vertical and soaring in its intensity, the 2020 is shaping up to be a jewel of a wine. Punchy red berry fruit, lavender, spice, mint and rose petal abound. What I like most about the 2020 is the way it balances fruit intensity with vibrancy and energy. Cantenac Brown is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. -Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 94-97
WE97Wine Enthusiast
This grand estate that recently changed hands has produced a seriously promising wine. Bold black fruits and dark tannins are just beginning a fine interplay, reinforced by the wine’s acidity. Expect a good future for the wine.

Barrel Sample: 95-97

JD96Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Chateau Cantenac Brown showed beautifully and is a serious, concentrated, powerful Margaux that’s going to need bottle age. Ripe blackcurrants, toasty oak, ripe tobacco, and dried flower notes all define the aromatics, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a layered, balanced mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. It shows the more focused, slightly understated style of the vintage, yet everything is in the right place, it has terrific purity, and it’s just a brilliant Margaux. I followed this bottle for multiple days, and it never put a foot wrong. It will hit its prime drinking window in 7-8 years and evolve for two decades. Best After 2030

JS95James Suckling
Plenty of blackberry, spice, iron and crushed lead pencil aromas follow through to a full body with chewy, velvety tannins and a rather cool side to it. Crushed stone and slate undertones.

RP94Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
A fine follow-up to the excellent 2019, the 2020 Cantenac Brown incorporates newly acquired holdings of Cabernet Sauvignon from the plateau of Margaux. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of cherries, cassis, burning embers and pencil shavings, it’s medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with good depth at the core, supple tannins and terrific purity of fruit. Concluding with a long, penetrating finish, it underlines the fact that this is the appellation’s fastest-improving estate. Rating: 94+

WS94Wine Spectator
Ripe, rounded and suave in feel, with alluring waves of cassis and dark cherry reduction laced with sandalwood, black tea and violet notes. Broad, velvety and perfumed through the finish, with a subtle sanguine hint echoing late. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

D93Decanter
Silky with touches of caramel, chocolate, blueberry, raspberries and boysenberries – all those autumnal fruits that have texture and acidity to them, with the signature gloss of Cantenac Brown. Clear peony, violet notes also. A linen texture that slows the passage of the wine through the mouth. Retasted at UGC and this is again good quality, the austerity on the tannins is marked right now, but there is plenty of life ahead here. New owner Tristan le Lous as of 2019, and this wine also includes the new 9.5ha vines of vines from Château Charmant and la Galiane (bought in July 2020). The fermentation was conducted at temperatures 4-5 °C lower than average to preserve fruit. 60% new oak. Harvest 10 to 30 September.
Barrel Sample: 93

Shipping & Return Information

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