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 | 2021 Ch. Branaire Ducru - Saint Julien GCC | € 40,00 (€ 48,40) |
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Op de superieur fijne neus en tongval volgt een aangename en coulante smaakervaring van het beste allooi. 2021 Branaire is heerlijk : lichtvoetig en fijn. De kleur is diep robijnrood. Munt en zwarte bes verblijdt de neus. Het rijkelijk gestructureerd palet vertoont de obligate hint naar Cabernet Sauvignon met cassis, somber fruit en kruidig wierook. Zonder de minste onzuiverheid levert hij een even intense als precieze proefervaring. Hij vertoont mooie « gourmandise » en een speels en soepel karakter zonder « maîtrise » of potentieel in vraag te stellen. Drie keer geproefd, goedgekeurd en « op weg naar een tevreden klant ». De verhouding prijs-kwaliteit-plezier is onklopbaar in Saint Julien. Branaire Ducru zet duidelijk een opmerkelijke prestatie neer in dit wijnjaar 2021. Dit is op en top en onmiskenbaar als grote Bordeaux. Francois-Xavier vertelde dat in de laatste twintig jaar nog nooit zo weinig Merlot in het assemblage werd opgenomen. 2021 is dus een Cabernet jaar voor Branaire. De Cabernet Sauvignon werd geplukt tot 14 oktober en vertegenwoordigt zowaar 66% van het assemblage, aangevuld met 22% Merlot, 6,5% Cabernet Franc en 5,5% Petit Verdot. Het rendement zakt van 40 naar 32 hl/ha van 2020 naar 2021. François-Xavier Maroteaux was nog jong toen hij met zijn ouders aankwam op het débarcadère du Verdon om enkele Châteaux te bezoeken in de Médoc. Dit zou zijn leven veranderen. De familie Maroteaux koopt in 1988 Branaire-Ducru en verlaat de suikerbietbusiness en banksector. Sinds 2017 staat François-Xavier aan het roer. Zijn zienswijze luidt: “maintenir le style Branaire avec des vins purs et fruités, dotés d'une grande fraîcheur, avec une structure très élégante ». In januari 2022 startten werkzaamheden om dit te bereiken. Samen met zijn directeur technique Jean-Dominique Videau tekende hij een plan uit met 66 kleinere cuves (in plaats van 38) om een nog preciezere “vinification parcellaire” mogelijk te maken. IN DE PERS 92 Neal Martin - vinous.com (November 2023) The 2021 Branaire Ducru, one of the smallest crops in recent years (32,5hl/ha) was bottled in early June. It has a clean and precise bouquet: blackberry, cdar, light pencil box scents and just a faint touch of undergrowth. It's certainly classic in style, yet displays more precision than you would have found in a Branaire a decade ago. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins. Again, black fruit comes to the fore - graphite-infused black fruit, with a little more salinity than I recall from barrel. There's pleasing strictness here; the 2021 is linear, without the frills of the 2019 and 2020. Yet for those seeking tradtional claret, this will fit the bill perfectly. Drink it over the next 20-25 years. Drink 2026-2048. 91-93 Neal Martin – vinous.com (Mei 2022) The 2021 Branaire Ducru was picked from September 24, albeit slowly, until October 14, at 32hL/ha. It has quite an intense, dare I say precocious bouquet of bold brambly red fruit that eventually settles in the glass and turns darker. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit and a touch of black pepper and tobacco. Quite a marine-influenced Saint-Julien, it fans out gradually toward the finish and exerts a gentle grip. Though not quite reaching the heights of recent vintages, it represents a true articulation of the growing season and of Branaire-Ducru itself. Drink 2025-2050. “We lost around 5% to frost in the inland parcels and we lost some Merlot within humid plots due to mildew, less than 10%,” proprietor Xavier Maroteaux told me at Château Branaire-Ducru. “We also lost some fruit because of adjacent plots where the owner had not controlled disease as we use organic and biodynamic products ourselves. We have only 22% Merlot and more Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in the blend due to the quality of the Cabernet Sauvignon and also new plantings of Cabernet Franc. We picked some of the young Merlot early because they looked fragile. Bad weather was forecast for the weekend, so we stopped, and we had only 10% of the amount [of rain]. We only had a small bit of rot with the Merlot, whereas the Cabernets were in great sanitary condition. It was easy to see the difference in quality between the Merlot and the Cabernet during blending, which was not the case in 2020. The Cabernet benefitted from the later ripening parcels, and these form the core of the blend. In this respect, the smaller yields really helped - we could not produce the same at 40hL/ha to 50hL/ha. There is a lot of fruit and freshness, a lot of elegance.” 94 Antonio Galloni - vinous.com (December 2023) Open and explosive in its aromatics, the 2021 Branaire-Ducru is deep, layered and super-expressive, promising to evolve well for many years to come. The Cabernets are especially evident in the wine's remarkable savory character. Black cherry, lavender, graphite, and dried herbs lend considerable nuance. In 2021, Branaire-Ducru is not quite as charming as it often is at the outset, so readers should plan on being patient. Drink 2028-2051. 93-95 Antonio Galloni – vinous.com (Mei 2022) The 2021 Branaire-Ducru is sleek, elegant and nuanced. There is more Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in the blend than in the 2018-2020 period, when the Merlots were especially successful. As a result, the aromatics are absolutely alluring, but the wine is much less forthcoming on the palate? At 12,9% alcohol, the 2021 is a classically austere Branaire that looks like it will need quite a bit of time to blossom. It is undoubtedly a very pretty wine, even if not fully expressive at this stage. Dark cherry, plum, chocolate, leather and rose petal linger. Tasted three times. Drink 2031-2061. 94 William Kelley – robertparker.com (Februari 2024) The 2021 Branaire-Ducru has realized all the potential it showed en primeur. Wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, plums, menthol, violets and baking chocolate, it's medium to full-bodied, supple and suave, with a velvety attack that segues into a deep, fleshy palate. This is especially impressive in the context of the vintage. Drink 2025-2041. Branaire-Ducru occupies 60 hectares of deep gravel soils, in 80 or so different parcels, on the plateau of Beychevelle. Cabernet Sauvignon dominates, but plantings of Petit Verdot on good soils are also a particularity of Branaire. When the Maroteaux family purchased the estate in 1988, a new winery followed a few years later; and now, another is under construction, which will almost double the number of fermentation vats, permitting more precise parcel-by-parcel vinification (some of these vats, incidentally, were online by the 2021 harvest and are surely part of the reason why Branaire has performed so well). Winemaking is very classical, and maturation is in around 60% new oak, with three or four traditional rackings. There are no smoke and mirrors at this address, just extremely good, age-worthy Saint-Julien that's always elegant and impeccably balanced. 93-94+ William Kelley – robertparker.com (April 2022) Having tasted the 2021 Branaire-Ducru six times over the course of a month and a half, I feel confident in saying that it is a beautiful wine that numbers among the vintage's real successes. Offering up aromas of raspberry coulis and red cherries mingled with notions of rose petals, cigar box and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and seamless, with a layered core of fruit, lively acids and beautifully powdery tannins. Why is it quite so good? It isn't because a lot of wine was declassified, as around 60% of the estate's production went into the grand vin this year—a touch more than average. Rather, the key factors seem to be waiting to pick despite an alarming weather forecast; the blend itself, which emphasizes ripe Cabernet and the estate's later-ripening Merlot on clay-limestone soils; and the fact that a partially completed new winery means that Branaire already had fully 63 fermentation vats at its disposal to pick and vinify parcel by parcel. The exact composition is 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. 94-95 James Suckling – jamessuckling.com (Mei 2022) A very pretty wine, showing blackberry and blackcurrant aromas with crushed stone. Medium to full body with layers of fine-grained tannins. Bright and refined. Lots of dark fruit at the end. Solid weight. 92 Jane Anson – janeanson.com (April 2022) Well balanced, showcasing the possibliities of the vintage, a little austere in its rose stem and cassis bud character, but it opens up to show finessed blackberry fruit, precisely cut tannins, and has plenty of potential to age. 32hl/ yield, up to 20 month ageing depending on tasting. Tasted twice. 91-93 Lisa Perrotti-Brown – thewineindependent.com (Mei 2022) Made from 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, and 5.5% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Branaire-Ducru is deep garnet-purple in color. It comes bounding out of the glass with bold scents of warm cassis, blackberry preserves, and ripe black plums, followed by hints of camphor, violets, black truffles, and tapenade, with a waft of wood smoke. Light to medium-bodied, the palate delivers impressive intensity with firm, fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long with a mineral lift. Drink 2026-2035. 93-95 Yohan Castaing - anthocyanes.fr (Mei 2022) 94-95 Terre des Vins (Mei 2022) Branaire DucruDe wijngaard van 60 hectare is aangeplant met 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc en 4% Petit Verdot. De familie van wijlen Patrick Maroteaux is er eigenaar van sinds 1988 en in het millésime 2018 maakten ze waarschijnlijk hun allerbeste wijn. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||