Karissa Reynolds

9.2

Great blend. Would drink again. — 7 years ago

Benjamin Hall Jr

9.3

Elegant blend of the perfectly selected grapes from Provence... Sasha Lichine, once again, as had his family predecessors, has done a magnificent job! Congrats! Eating with some soft mild cheeses & ripe sweet melon.... PUUUURRRRFECT! — 8 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.0

Located in rural Carlton, Oregon, KWC is devoted to showcasie the inherent quality of selected vineyard sites. A blend of Ken Wright Cellars' traditional vineyards, not as complex as the vineyard designates, but enjoyable none the less, Ruby with berry fruits and spice. On the palate raspberry and ripe cherry with complex spice, well balanced with smooth tannins. Nice length on the finish ending with slight earthy character. — 8 years ago

Julia Devonish

9.1

A lovely rich tasting red with no after taste. Good with or without food. — 9 years ago

Nina Liu

9.2

full of sweet fullness. Persimmon, honeydew, nuts ... Aged but still clear and translucent.. Joyful as afternoon tea time. (More syrup and liquor like intensity) — 9 years ago

Jamie Franklin

9.0

Great value, delicious wine. Balanced, with nice dark fruit and light tannins. Smooth finish. — 9 years ago

Cecilia Hernandez

8.9

Impressive for the price. One of our favorites. — 9 years ago

Jeff Mastin

9.1

My go to simple but elegant merlot - black cherry and plum with med acidity and tannin — 10 years ago

terroirista-cy

9.3

Tasting with Olek Bondonio
His wines are true expressions of the land and specially his Barbarescos are showing the quality of Olek's "work" less is more.
— 10 years ago

with Christos

Peter Martin

9.2

Deep color with minty nose, silky round finish. — 10 years ago

Bob Patterson

9.6

Paula Rester selected for us at Maialino, NYC. — 10 years ago

Paul Weil

9.1

Tart Granny Smith apples with citrus flavors lead into a creamy finish. A great value and good food wine. Paired well with turkey burgers and grilled vegetables. — 11 years ago

Leanne Ingham

9.0

One of my favourites for the price, and for the memories of fighting fire about the winery in 2015 — 7 years ago

Greg Ballington

Co-Founder of Millennial Drinkers Wine Blog

9.3

Fun blind tasting of Napa Valley Cabernets, we decided to choose two from 2011 while my Dad selected two different vintages of Caymus Special Selection.

Deep and dark purplish ruby red. Layers of oak influence, toasted, vanilla, cinnamon and dark cherries. Heavy tannins (7.5/10) and full bodied. Rich palate with bramble berries, black fruits, dark cocoa and a touch herbal. Long and lingering finish. Drink till 2026.

Had around 5 or 6 hours in the decanter and needed it. — 8 years ago

with Sean and India

Stanislav Lobanov

9.8

(19/20) Сложный, красивый букет ароматов вишни, малины, кураги, инжира, шоколада, табачных листьев и баттерскотча. Великолепно сбалансированная структура. Отличная концентрация вкусов. Продолжительное послевкусие. Мечта! — 8 years ago

Tracey LaPointe

9.0

Very good. Good body & great red fruit. Nicely balanced. 2012 reserve — 9 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.0

1975 vintage. Golden honeyed raisined brown sugared carmelized orangey goodness — 9 years ago

Brad Donaldson

9.5

Amazing Shiraz! — 9 years ago

John T

9.3

Wished I had bought a case at $16. Very strong tenants when first opened. It was utterly fantastic after four hours — 10 years ago

Brian Robinson

9.5

Steve and Katie (probably) or Eric and Ashley gave it to us at the Supreme Court reading. Paired very nicely with ikea (yes ikea) caraway/rye crackers. According to other reviewers, $7 at trader joes. — 10 years ago

Christopher McCurdy

9.1

Delicious wine with lasagna. Very fruit forward and smooth tannins. A little "hot" but very nice finish — 10 years ago

Ben Field

9.5

Smooth, drinkable, very affordable — 10 years ago

Edmond Ng

8.9

Sweet. Traditional rice wine. — 11 years ago

Melissa Fricke

9.6

A sweeter red, kind of like St. Croix wine — 12 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. — 7 years ago

Julia Weinberg

9.3

Birthday closing curiosity. Dark as old Rioja but still dancing a lively jig. — 10 years ago

Miguel Oqueli

8.9

Great USD11 wine! 🍷😱 — 10 years ago

with Pamela

Nick Prangnell

9.2

Great balanced Chablis, worked well with a Thai.. — 10 years ago

Rey Caparros

8.9

Surprisingly nice pick from Giant in Virginia — 10 years ago

Michael Thompson

9.1

A complex and very fruity wine with a unique flavor profile.
$18 — 11 years ago