Hey everyone!
I’m organizing a quasi-vertical for myself, my wife, and another couple that are some of our very best friends. Through my diligent efforts my best friend has totally gotten the wine bug, and has learned more in four months than I did in about a year and a half. We have a trip coming up and he voiced wanting to finally taste something with 30 years or more bottle age, and I suggested we do a quasi vertical to expose him to varying degrees of bottle age. At the moment I have two viable options, and wanted to get everyone’s opinion on what would be the better value and experience between my two options. I’m planning on sourcing the older bottles from Macarthur Beverages, and pricing reflects that;
The two choices at the moment are between:
Branaire Ducru:
1995, $189
2010, $109
2019, $49
Total: $347 plus tax
or
Brane-Cantenac:
1983, $149
2015, $95
2020, $80
Total: $324 plus tax
The clear difference is that Branaire-Ducru offers a much better spacing of vintage, and I suspect the 2010 Branaire-Ducru easily outweighs the 2015 Brane-Cantenac. Despite this, I would also argue the inherent value proposition of the Brane-Cantenac vertical is far superior in total.
The Brane Cantenac is a better deal for sure. 1983 and 2015 are good vintages for Margaux, and the 2020 Brane Cantenac will be head and shoulders above the 2010 Branaire
With that said the 2015 and 2020 will both be young.
Great to hear some confirmation. My only reservation really was around whether 2015 is still so young that the vertical will fail to provide my friend with the vintage contextual comparison we’re trying to achieve. I think it might work, I just wish I could more easily and cost-effectively find something like a Brane-Cantenac 2010 instead.
Apart from that, yeah, I failed to even bring up the 2020 Brane-Cantenac quality because that had become a “given” in my head. Very excited for whenever I do open a bottle of it, because I’ve only heard stellar reviews.
See if you can get a 2004 Brane Cantenac cheaply, supposed to be an “off vintage” but it’s drinking well now in a subtle way and would give a good sense of what a “middle aged” Bordeaux feels like. Obviously 2000 if you can get it would be better but could be pricey
Well, this is where my bias enters the equation. I’ve had the 1983 once before, three months ago!
It’s towards the end of its life, but offered a very pleasant and fascinating 3-4 hours from opening. Opened to strong aromas of iron and blood, and carried a note of vanilla extract through to the end. It had constant gentle “suggestions” of red fruit, without ever quite revealing its character.
Unfair to score, as that was the oldest bottle I’ve had up to this point, but if I had to, I would say it probably was a 94-95 not that long ago, but has settled into a 92-93. For our purposes that’s somewhat irrelevant; the intent is exposure to wine at this stage of development that still bears reasonable expressive character.
I guess that’s where I have some appeal about the Branaire-Ducru 1995, in that it may not qualitatively be as “good” of a wine, but I expect I will learn yet more from drinking something mature but younger in its life cycle.
I also accept that probably many individuals on this board would be more likely to score 1983 Brane-Cantenac lower due to their greater comparative experience. I wouldn’t be shocked if someone else on here gave it a 90, although that’s not what I have decided to measure it as.
I would go with the Branaire vertical, basically because I would expect that tasting to be more enjoyable than the Brane-Cantenac tasting.
BC:
1983 – this is getting up there in age — it’s a crapshoot
2015 – not crazy about this vintage
2020 – it’s very young
BD
1995 – this is not too young, nor am I concerned about it being too old
2010 – I would expect this to be quite good, but still youthful
2019 – I have been smoking through bottles of this. It has consistently shown excellently, despite its youth.
'83 Brane Cantenac was an excellent wine and among/maybe the best Margaux of that vintage after Margaux and Palmer. I drank through most of a case and still have some left, somewhere in my dog’s breakfast of a basement home cellar, which I hope to find and drink soon.
Ah, thanks Brian, this is the kind of feedback I was hoping for.
Much of what you’re saying is a lot of what I was suspecting, with none of the experience to back it up. I’m hesitant about the BC 2015, but also have had very little of the vintage so had some reserved interest. Great to hear about the 2019 Branaire-Ducru, I may have to look for more no matter what direction I go with this tasting.
The caveat was how much I enjoyed the 1983 Brane-Cantenac, but I agree that there is definitely some inherent risk of a wayward bottle ruining the party, lol.
Wow, I enjoyed the bottle I had before, but didn’t know it was held in such high regard for the vintage. It certainly left an impression, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have another bottle, I know that!
Ha, that’s one of the more novel cellar descriptors I’ve ever heard. But dogs sure do love their dog bowl!
Brane Cantenac puts library vintages on the market and you can find the 2000, 2005, 2009, and 2010 all with ex-chateau/negoce provenance. I would do that. I actually saw the '83 on the shelf at Macarthur’s last week and was tempted but it didn’t appear to have direct provenance and the color made it look a little chancy. But I’m sure they’d be happy to give you more info about where it came from if you ask.
I quite liked the 2015 Brane-Cantenac and thought it brought lots of elegance to the ripe vintage. I do fear that it would be in a black hole of shut-downness right now, though. Happy to concur with David and Brian that the 2019 Branaire-Ducru is excellent–I just had another bottle last week, and it showed beautifully.
Sheesh, lots of love for 2019 Branaire-Ducru. People have been keeping their cards close to their chest, I had no idea there was that much love out there for it.
Fair points. I acquired the first bottle of 1983 BC from them as well, and it went well. Noticeably, when it first came up on the website from them, they had 12 bottles, so I assume it was a cellar acquisition from a customer or something. I would love to know what the bottle variation was like on the whole case.
Really good catch, and glad to hear that there is yet some value to the 2015. But I agree, I hadn’t considered that along with 2015 still being somewhat young, it really probably is totally shut down at the moment. Appreciate it!
