~ Chateau Cantenac Brown ~
(3rd Grand cru classe, Margaux AOC)
1. Background story
It was quite long time ago when I visited Chateau Cantenac Brown.
After visiting, I fell down a cup of hot tea on my laptop.
So I spent a lot of time with stress....
Now everything is okay. My laptop has been well dried and it works well.
I visited Chateau Cantenac Brown on 8th August.
The weather was not good at when I left my home, but it was better when I arrived in Chateau.
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2. Boutique
I has arrived there much earlier than the appointed time.
As waiting for my turn, I took some photos.
Pampi has not known yet who it will be....
A small bottle is so cute.
The oldest Chateau Cantenac brown wine bottles.
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3. Vineyard
Scale :48 Hectares
Their vineyard is located on a gentle slop although medoc(margaux) area is very flat in general.
The vineyard is designed in order that the rainwater is gathered at the low part.
The soil is poor.
The tractor cuts some leaves on the top regularly.
Harvest: Septembre and octobre by hand.
Each branch's cut, delivered to VAT house and assorted by berries.
The spoiled berries are threw away.
Grapevine: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon,
30% Merlot
5% Cabernet Franc
They also produce white wine (not in Margaux AOC), the surface for white grape is 1.5 hectares.
Cabernet Sauvignon
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4. Proprietor
Today, an English family, who is the origin of Syria, owns this Chateau.
The first family who was an owner of the chateau was Brown family, who came from Scotland at the beginning of 19th century (1806).
In 1840s the son of the brown family sold the chateau to a banker in Paris market.
In 1855, Chateau Cantenac Brown acquired "3rd Grand cru classe".
After that the Chateau was handed over to a Bordeaux wine merchant, Louis Armand Lalande.
He renovated the building in 1860s.
This is backyard
The chateau has British style building with a huge garden and forest of British style.
Until 1980s, the chateau was used for seminars or events.
Today, however, the current family Simon Halabi is living in the chateau. (It means that it is closed for visitors)
This is front
This is English garden. The English garden is more natural than French garden.
There are a lot of trees (20 hectares)
Also, there are some animals such as fox, swan and deer in the forest.
This is just decoration neither for living nor guarding. JUST DECORATION.
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5. Vinification
Harvest period: from 20-25th Septembre to the middle of Octobre
To control well, the tanks (VAT) are changed to stainless.
Even though the tanks has both inside pipe and outside pipe, only inside pipe is used these days.
Between the harvest and Christmas, Alcoholic fermentation and maceration are processed.
After Christmas, they do malolactic fermentation of the "grand vin" (First wine) in oak barrels.
The second line of wine is kept in tanks for it.
In the wine cellar(Barrel house), the temperature is always 16 degrees.
They are all french oaks.
Chateau Cantenac Brown buys diverse oak barrels depends on the producer and year.
This is a purpose to give diverse aromas and flavours.
The wine maturation needs 15 months for "Grand vin(First wine-Chateau Cantenac Brown)"
and 12 months for second wine "BriO"
The vintage 2015 wine is going to finish maturation in June, 2017.
During the maturation, "Soutirage" is implemented for cleaning inside of oak barrels each 3-4 months.
(60% of new barrels for Grand vin, 25% for BriO)
The producer and toasted degree of oak barrels are organized as to be invisible to people.
This is a decision of wine maker to focus on the only wine.
The reason why barrel house is built by stone is that the oak barrels would be dried if there is not enough humidity.
If it isn't a stone wall, the oak barrels would absorb too much wine.
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6. Wine tasting
(1) Chateau Cantenac Brown
AOC Margaux
Vintage 2008
3rd Grand cru classe
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot
Ideal time to drink: in 8 ~ 10 years
Strong Alcohol
Black Current, Spices, Black pepper, Mushroom
H acidity, HH Tannin, Full body, L finish
Would be nice with chicken or duck food. (beef as well)
(2) BriO
AOC Margaux
Vintage 2011
49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc
Clear / Deep / Ruby
Clean / Pronounced / moss, stone, mineral, farm yard, forest...
H acidity, H tannin, F body, L finish
Fruitiness, Black current, prune, mure(black berry), spicy(hot)
Would be nice with game, cheese
According to my note, I mentioned that:
This wine is really nice. Even it was better than the last wine.
This wine let me find some foods.
It is not exactly what I'm looking for, but it is really NICE.
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Pam-Teok: "I'm the evil... for the new grape vine....! I'm eating everything...."
I've heard that the enemy of grape vine is rabbit recently!!!!
It is neither people nor wild pigs!
Rabbits eat all the small shoots so they are dangerous. OMG
Even if they are enemies of wineries, omg, they are toooooo cute.......
hoo hoo hoo....
It was a nice visiting!
Especially the castle was very special (British style) and the scenery was so beautiful.
Fortunately, when I took photos, it was getting sunny.
I bought a post card for souvenir. :-)
Visiting and Tasting 12 euros
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