2021 Chateau Cantenac Brown 3eme Cru Classe, Margaux

Ruby red depth to the colour with violet edging. Not as luxurious as the past few years of Cantenac Brown have been, but excellent quality, well put together, finessed and powerful with black cherry fruits and raspberry puree, with tiny pulses of lemongrass acidity. 60% new oak barrels for ageing.
Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux, May 2022

The 2021 Cantenac Brown has turned out very nicely in bottle, wafting from the glass with notes of dark berries and cherries mingled with hints of menthol, licorice and violets. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and seamless, with a layered core of fruit, sweet tannins and nicely integrated acids, it concludes with a delicately vanillin-inflected finish. This strong performance in a challenging season underlines this property's upward trajectory.

The 2021 Cantenac Brown is going to require time to come together. The Cabernet is pushed up. That very much comes through in the wine's aromatic profile and overall intensity. Sweet red-fleshed fruit, tobacco, incense and rose petal are some of the many notes that build. Vibrant and exquisitely layered, Cantenac Brown is quite promising. Élevage will be critical. Like so many of his colleagues, Technical Director José Sanfins saignéed the Merlots, lightly chaptalized the Cabernets and opted for longer but gentler extractions. Tasted two times.
Antonio Galloni, Vinous, May 2022

The 2021 Cantenac Brown is another fine effort from a Margaux estate that's been on something of a roll of late. Unwinding in the glass with notions of cassis, wild berries, loamy soil and cigar box, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and seamless, with good concentration, lively acids and a nicely defined finish. José Sanfins and his team opted to wait to pick the estate's Cabernet Sauvignon between the fourth and 12th of October, and that appears to have paid off. The blend is 73% Cabernet Sauvignon and 27% Merlot, and just over half the estate's production went into the grand vin.
William Kelley, April 2022

The 2021 Cantenac Brown has an open, expressive bouquet of tobacco-tinged red fruit and well-integrated oak. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, light red berry fruit mixed with sage and cedar, and perhaps a very slight herbal element on the finish. Winemaker José Sanfins has crafted a fine-boned Cantenac Brown, one that is more suited to early drinking than recent vintages.
Neal Martin, Vinous, May 2022

Deep, glowing crimson. Intense nose of blackberries. Round – as though very carefully worked. Not desperately long and with quite marked acidity but the phenolics were certainly ripe enough. Clean and fresh. Just slightly lacks the flesh of the Giscours 2021 tasted alongside.
Drink 2027 – 2038
Jancisrobinson.com, May 2022

73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot. Deep ruby. Dark-fruited and slightly reticent on the nose for now. Woody herbs and flecks of dark fruit show on the palate, but it all seems subsumed by structure and a little hollow at the moment. (TP)