Chateau Cantenac Brown 2012

Professional Ratings

• 94 Wine Enthusiast
  A solid effort, this is a wine with great fruit and firm structure to support it. Ripe and full in the mouth, it’s a firm and complex wine with a delicious juicy aftertaste.
  Barrel Sample: 92-94 Points
• 93 Wine Spectator
  This offers beguiling aromas of bergamot, roasted sandalwood and black tea, before giving way to a well-endowed core of plum, blackberry and raspberry reduction notes. The structure is remarkably fine-grained, showing seamless integration through the long finish. A really great showing.
• 93 Decanter
  Still austere at this point, it is certainly serious for a 2012. It's extremely young, silky and polished, opening beautifully in the glass to reveal rich chocolate, gourmet damson and cocoa-dusted edges. An impressive wine that needs time. 60% new oak. 53% of production.
• 93 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2012 Cantenac Brown, one of the most impressive Margaux I tasted, is the complete package – from the initial attack to the layered, rich finish. Dense ruby/purple-hued with notes of licorice, mulberries, black currants, asphalt and spring flowers, this medium to full-bodied, concentrated, rich effort does not reveal an excess of rusticity or astringency.
  Barrel Sample: 90-93 Points
• 92 James Suckling
  This is very intense for the vintage in the Médoc with blueberry, mineral and blackcurrant character. Full and chewy. Needs two or three years to soften but already there.
• 90 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  The 2012 Château Cantenac Brown is spot-on for the vintage. The wine exhibits a pleasing balancing of the elements—ripe fruit, creamy oak, and layered textures. Drinks nicely now with a simple grilled steak, topped with diced shallots. (Tasted: January 30, 2015, San Francisco, CA)