More wines available from Chateau Cantenac Brown
750ml
Bottle:
$32.94
A very pretty white with sliced-apple, praline and vanilla aromas and flavors that follow through to a full body with...
1.5Ltr - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$94.99
Wonderful nose offering ripe red and black fruits...Elegant body with well-rounded tannins. Finesse and elegance,...
750ml
Bottle:
$42.75
Dark cherry, plum, mocha, espresso, licorice and spice are all amped up in the BriO, Cantenac Brown's second wine....
750ml
Bottle:
$31.89
$35.40
The second wine of Cantenac Brown, the 2016 Brio de Cantenac is a solid, medium-bodied, elegant wine that’s very...
750ml
Bottle:
$33.93
This is very rich and edgy with lovely brightness and freshness, underlying the black and blue fruit. Warm and spicy,...
More Details
Winery
Chateau Cantenac Brown
Vintage: 2008
2008 saw very high yields across wineries in much of the southern hemisphere, as a result of highly favorable climatic conditions. Although in many areas, these high yields brought with them something of a drop in overall quality, this could not be said for South Australia's wines, which were reportedly excellent. Indeed, the 2008 Shiraz harvest in South Australia is said to be one of the most successful in recent decades, and western Australia's Chardonnays are set to be ones to watch out for. New Zealand's Pinot Noir harvest was also very good, with wineries in Martinborough reportedly very excited about this particular grape and the characteristics it revealed this year.
Pinot Noir also grew very well in the United States, and was probably the most successful grape varietal to come out of California in 2008, with Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley delivering fantastic results from this grape. Elsewhere in United States, Washington State and Oregon had highly successful harvests in 2008 despite some early worries about frost.
However, it was France who had the best of the weather and growing conditions in 2008, and this year was one of the great vintages for Champagne, the Médoc in Bordeaux, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence, with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay grapes leading the way. Italy, too, shared many of these ideal conditions, with the wineries in Tuscany claiming that their Chianti Classicos of 2008 will be ones to collect, and Piedmont's Barberesco and Barolo wines will be recognized as amongst the finest of the past decade.
Varietal: Red Bordeaux
Bordeaux red wines are widely regarded as being the finest red wines produced anywhere in the world, regularly topping awards lists and generally being amongst the most sought after and collectable bottles available. The secret to their success and their particularly memorable and refined characteristics is the fact that Bordeaux red wines are made from a blend of grape varietals, most commonly from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes, helped by a touch of Petit Verdot or Cabernet Franc. The other two key Bordeaux grape varietals which are also used in the blend of many of these excellent wines are Malbec and Carménere, although it is becoming less common to see these in use today. The art of blending primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grape varietals is something which has been much imitated around the world, as it produces a wonderfully balanced, rounded yet massively complex and flavorful wine, ideal for oak aging The acid and tannin levels in each of these grape varietals is balanced and tempered by the blend, and generations of expertise has gone into the careful selection and cultivation of such quality grapes.
Region: Bordeaux
The wineries of Bordeaux in France are widely considered to be amongst the finest on earth, with many of the chateaux found on the Left Bank and in the Médoc region routinely demanding enormous prices and being snapped up by collectors looking to add the best examples of the world's white and red wines to their cellars. Bordeaux's secret to success comes from the fact that the terroir of the region is exceptionally rich in minerals, helped by the clay and gravel soils which typify the area and the Gironde river which runs through it. Normally humid in climate, the nearby Atlantic coast supplies cooling breezes, making Bordeaux a winemaker's dream and resulting in extremely high quality grape varietals. For hundreds of years, the wineries of Bordeaux have been mastering the art of wine blending, and today produce a wide range of wine styles using many of the sixteen grape varietals permitted to grow in the region by French law.
Country: France
France is renowned across the globe for its quality wines and the careful expertise which goes into making them, but what is truly remarkable about this relatively small country is the vast range of wines it produces in such huge amounts each year. Not only are the finest red wines in the world said to come from the beautiful regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, but elsewhere in the country we find the Champagne region, and areas such as the Rhone Valley and the Loire, whose white wines consistently receive awards and accolades by the plenty. This range is a result of the great variety of climatic conditions and terrain found in France, coupled with generations of wine makers working within single appellations. Their knowledge of specific terroirs and grape varieties has, over time, perfected the production of wines within their region, and the end results continue to impress the world to this day.
Appellation: Margaux
The Bordeaux region of France is packed full of important and highly esteemed appellations and sub-regions, but few are as famous of highly esteemed as Margaux, a beautiful small appellation in the Médoc, on the right bank of the Gironde river. In Margaux, the wine-makers of the various chateaus which cover the region have a powerful reputation for excellence to uphold, and go about doing so by ensuring traditional techniques are observed, high quality grapes are used and absolute love and precision go into every single bottle. Margaux almost always makes blended red wines, made from various red Bordeaux grapes. Such grapes thrive in the gravelly, mineral rich soils of the region, and ripen fully under the hot sun, thus expressing all of the finest features of their varietal, and of the terroir they grow on.