Château Brane-Cantenac is a Deuxième cru classé in Margaux.  In the nineteenth century, the vineyard was highly-prized.  In 1833, the Baron de Brane (nicknamed the ‘Napoleon of the vines’) sold Brane-Mouton (now Mouton-Rothschild) to fund the purchase of Château Gorce, which he renamed after himself, Brane-Cantenac.  In 1855, both estates were classified deuxième grand cru classé (Mouton was promoted to premier grand cru classé status in 1973).

Brane-Cantenac is knocking at the door of ‘super-second’ status.  This must be one of the best value wines at this exalted level.  Centred on the ‘croupe de Brane’ terroir, the 75 hectares of vineyards are at around 22 metres above sea level, one of the most elevated sites in this low-lying region.  The gravel soils run very deep here, in some places 12m below the surface.  The vineyard is planted to planted to 55%Cabernet Sauvignon, 39%Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc, 1% PetitVerdot and 0.5% Carmenere.

Henri Lurton purchased the estate in 1992 and after a difficult period in the 1990s he found success with an excellent run of vintages from 2000 onwards, focusing on terroir at a time when some estates were making increasingly extracted and oaked wines.  The signature of the wines is a floral nose and an elegance which is quintessentially Margaux.

The short animation below gives an excellent sense of the terroir