1997 Château Brane-Cantenac

49% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc. 47 hl/ha. Deep core with brick at the rim. Light and easy-going with no great complexity. Herbaceous edge. Fresh attack with a touch of sweetness to follow. Shows a certain charm but now looking a little tired. Dry finish. (JL)

The 1997 Brane-Cantenac, which marked the beginning of restructuring of the vineyard, is a decent wine from a challenging growing season. It has a simple but pleasant nose, less green than those from the beginning of the decade, with a mixture of red and black fruit, cedar, loam and still, just that dab of antique bureau. The palate is medium-bodied. Powdery tannins frame straightforward but clean blackberry and blueberry fruit that, as I wrote before, gifts a little more flesh than you would expect. Finely balanced with a dab of cracked black pepper on the finish, you can go far more wrong with 1997 Bordeaux than this. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château in September 2025.

Love the consistency of colours in these wines, with a solid core of ruby fruit, never more than medium intensity, and this is both enticing and full of life, soft tawny around the edges. Emphasis on faded roses, soy, tobacco leaf and miso, full tertiary flavours, it's one that is fully in its drinking window, has charm and crushed autumnal fruits, but expect tertiary flavours and aromatics to dominate. Harvest September 11 to October 2, 47hl/h yield, 3.84ph. Rainy summer but dry September, and in this vintage they began restructuring the vineyard, and reintroduced wooden vats into the vat room. Jacques Boissenot consultant, Henri Lurton owner and estate director.