Ratings By Robert Parker 89 Tasting Notes The dense ruby/purple-colored, charming, finesse-styled 1999 Cantenac Brown offers excellent sweetness, medium body, and abundant black currant fruit intermixed with truffle, toasty oak, and subtle dried herb notes. The wine possesses good tannin, lively fruit, and excellent purity as well as balance. It should drink well for 10-12… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 88 Tasting Notes Elegant, sweet, floral-infused, black currant and blackberry fruit, along with licorice, earth, and even a note of truffles are present in this medium-bodied wine’s aromas and flavors. Moreover, there is excellent concentration, good purity, and sweet tannin. Not a blockbuster, it is a well-made, symmetrical 1998 to drink… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker (83-84) Tasting Notes I liked Cantenac Brown’s 1997, a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. Whether it is the estate’s terroir or the winemaking style, Cantenac Brown tends to be a stern, tannic wine, but the softness of the 1997 vintage has given this effort plenty… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 86+ Tasting Notes I generally find Cantenac-Brown too tough-textured, tannic, and dry. Therefore, I am happy to say the 1996, while tannic, looks to be one of the better balanced efforts to emerge from this estate. The color is a deep ruby/purple. The wine offers simple but pleasing aromas of black… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 78 Tasting Notes Although the 1995 reveals a good color, it has been consistently angular, austere, and too tannic. This is a lean, spartan style of claret that is likely to dry out before enough tannin melts away to reach a balance with the wine??s fruit. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010. Last tasted,… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 93 Tasting Notes An amazing success in this vintage, the dark ruby/purple-hued 2008 reveals its noble terroir in its complex aromatics of spring flowers and burning embers/charcoal. A medium to full-bodied mouthfeel displaying no hard edges and a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood result in an approachable, already… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 89 Tasting Notes Elegant notes of Chinese black tea, black currants, licorice, and flowers emerge from this excellent, medium-bodied, supple-textured Margaux. As the wine sat in the glass, a bit of raspy tannins started to push through, which lowered my score a point or two. Drink it over the next 7-8… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 91+ Tasting Notes While it is easy to lose sight of this wine, given the prodigious 2005 that was produced, this is another outstanding effort from an estate that has been doing everything right for some time. Notes of graphite, black currant liqueur, incense, and camphor make for a complex and… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 97 Tasting Notes This estate??s finest effort – ever, the 2005 Malescot St.-Exupery should be sought out by readers looking for intensity combined with superb richness, fascinating elegance, and a surreal concoction of blue and red fruits, a silky texture, and a delicate yet powerful wine that builds incrementally, never becoming… Read More »
Ratings By Robert Parker 90 Tasting Notes Although one of the appellation??s more tannic 2004s, the tannin is beautifully balanced by sweet black currant fruit, spring flower, camphor, and licorice notes. This impeccably well-made, medium-bodied Margaux reveals a lovely integration of acidity, tannin, and wood. Give it 2-3 years of bottle age, and drink it… Read More »