Château Brane-Cantenac, Syndicate Share, 2025
Château Brane-Cantenac, Syndicate Share, 2025
- 75cl
- 13.3%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc
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Est. delivery in 2028
2022 set a new benchmark for Brane-Cantenac – with its highest critical ratings across the board. 2025 rivals it and includes a first ever potential perfect score.
The vintage coincides with 100th Anniversary of Lurton Family Ownership, for which there will a unique commemorative label, for the lucky few, an Honest Grapes Syndicate Half Barrel (5 shares only) which the Lurton family have generously agreed to.
Château Brane-Cantenac, 2025
£1,185 per 30x75cl share
- Personalised back label
- A Syndicate Member’s visit to the estate including lunch for two (date TBC)
- Large formats are available at a supplement
The 90-hectare vineyard sits on the Bages plateau, where deep gravel beds over clay-limestone subsoil provide perfect drainage and heat retention. These Günzian gravel soils, deposited by ancient rivers, force the vines to dig deep for water and nutrients. The elevated position catches cooling breezes from the Gironde whilst the gravel radiates heat during ripening, creating the perfect conditions for slow, even maturation of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pauillac represents Left Bank Bordeaux at its most regal, home to three first growths and a constellation of exceptional estates. The commune's deep gravel soils and proximity to the Gironde estuary create ideal conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon, producing wines of extraordinary power and longevity. Pauillac reds are built for the cellar, developing cedar, graphite, and tobacco complexity over decades. The appellation demands a minimum of 11% alcohol and 18 months ageing before release.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
What the critics say:
"Black cherries, currants, roses, violets, spice, and forest floor create the aromatics. On the palate, the elegance and purity of the fruit are instantly recognizable. The lift and vibrancy, paired with concentration and sensuality, set this apart. The finish starts strong and continues seamlessly. 2025 marks the Lurton family's 100th anniversary of owning the vineyard. You can expect to see a special label celebrating the occasion. The 2025 is in competition with the 2022 as the best vintage ever produced at the estate. The wine blends 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 1% Carmenere, and 1% Cabernet Franc. 13.3% ABV, 3.62 pH. Harvesting took place September 2 - September 19. Yields were 32 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2029-2065."
"Cassis, graphite, liquid violets, and tobacco all define the 2025 Château Brane-Cantenac, a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 1% each Cabernet Franc, Carménère, and Petit Verdot that's being raised in 100% new French oak. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a focused, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful concentration and depth, integrated acidity, and a great finish. Hitting 13.5% alcohol, it's a brilliant success in the vintage and should be snatched up by readers."
"Look out for the special centennial label to mark 100 years of the Lurton family's ownership. This is divine aromatically and yet also delivers an incredible density and compactness in the mid-palate that only Brane seems to be able to achieve with this much clarity, finesse, elegance and precision. There's a gentle and very natural sweetness to the aromatics. This is a wine of a paradoxical brilliance given the constrast between its staggering freshness and the climatic conditions from which it was forged. The floral notes are delicate and subtle - lily of the valley, perhaps a little mimosa and iris. There's a touch of incense too. Brane Cantenac in 2025 is texturally sublime, with an amazing sensation of layering and a dynamic freshness that seems to well up from below very naturally. Quite simply, this is a triumph."
"This is luscious and full of wonderfully bright fruits, great concentration, cushion of air underneath, high Cabernet and it comes through in the floral aromatics, clearly a plentiful tannic structure but luscious and layered damson and black cherry. Yes yes yes. 12.10% press wine. 3.62 pH. Tasted twice. 100 years of the Lurtons at Brane."
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Château Brane-Cantenac
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