2023 Château Cantenac Brown, Cru Classé Margaux

The 2023 Cantenac Brown is concentrated, ample and generous right out of the gate. Blackberry, incense, new leather, tobacco, menthol and chocolate are all amplified to the maximum. As is often the case, Cantenac Brown is one of the more extroverted wines in Margaux. It's a style that works so well. Readers will have to be patient, as the 2023 needs time to shed some of its baby fat.

The 2023 Cantenac Brown, now with its new eco-friendly winery under the helm of winemaker José Sanfins, has a lot of fruit intensity on the nose: blackberry and wild strawberry, with touches of melted tar and sous-bois. It's quite forward and more fruit-driven that expected. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, very pliant tannins. It's impressively weighty and notably focused, though maybe not quite delivering the complexity and terroir expression on the finish as I found with the previous vintage.

Impressive precision to this, offering blackcurrants, blackberries and cherries, as well as hints of cedar and dark fruit. Medium to full body. Creamy and fine tannins. Better than 2022.

The first vintage produced in the estate's new state-of-the-art winery, the 2023 Cantenac Brown has turned out very well indeed, offering up aromas of dark berries, pencil shavings and violets, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and layered palate that's serious and precise, concluding with a long, resonant finish. This blend of 71.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot and 1.5% Cabernet Franc represents 52% of the estate's production; and it reflects both the new winery's enhanced capabilities, along with the presence of old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon derived from holdings recently acquired in the heart of the plateau of Margaux.