Chateau Cantenac Brown 2009

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "This showstopper is hitting all the right notes. This supple-textured, rich, concentrated, full-bodied, deep wine opens with smoke, truffle, 5 spice and a basket of black, red and blue fruit. The finish is all about the silky tannins and waves of deep, dark, perfectly ripe, sweet fruits. While still youthful, this is already a pleasure in your glass and will only get better from here."

DECANTER: "Gorgeous nose here, this is enticing and seductive and feels totally confident. Liquorice and chocolate is clear, it has generous, rich and well-textured black and brambly fruit but with beautiful balance that speaks to the appellation, and a mouthwatering sign-off. A great vintage, doing what great vintages do. 42% of the production in the 1st wine, 60% new oak. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040"

JAMES SUCKLING: "Wonderful aromas of crushed raspberries, flowers, and hints of vanilla bean. Full body, with silky tannins and a juicy finish. Fresh and minerally. Best in 2018."

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Rubingranat, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Würzige Kräuternase, reife Pflaumen, etwas Nougat, reife dunkle Waldbeeren sind unterlegt. Saftig, dunkle Beerenfrucht, dezente Extraktsüße, gut gereifte Tannine, frisch strukturiert, kraftvoll und anhaftend, zeigt gute Länge, feiner Veilchentouch im Abgang, gutes weiteres Reifepotenzial."

WINE ENTHUSIAST: "Firmly structured, dark-fruited wine, very solid and dense. It has weight along with black currant fruits and acidity. It's a wine that is rich but seriously structured for aging."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This is perfumy and very pure, with lovely lilac and blackberry aromas followed by plum, cassis and black cherry fruit. The supple finish is caressed with toast that leaves a lingering, perfumy feel. Best from 2013 through 2023."

WEINWISSER: "Sattes Purpur-Granat. Das Bouquet wirkt einerseits etwas reserviert und kühl, und doch finden sich auch süssliche Noten von leicht überreifem Traubengut. Am Gaumen stoffig, mit guter Fülle, auch hier ein Tanz zwischen floral und fruchtig, zeigt noch ein paar Kanten, kann noch zulegen."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Tasted twice in Bordeaux, I must say that whatever was shown to me in cask certainly did not appear to be performing as well from bottle. It could be just that the wine has closed down, but I had thought this was an extraordinary wine and one of the big time sleepers of the vintage. The tannins have taken hold, and although the wine is still outstanding, any hopes of achieving a mid-90 point score, as I had hoped, seem highly questionable. Dense ruby/purple with notes of graphite, blackberries and forest floor, the wine is full-bodied, powerful, excruciatingly tannic and closed, and that may be why it’s not showing as well as I predicted. Certainly, this was the biggest discrepancy between barrel and bottle that I saw in the vintage, but the wine is still outstanding, just not profound. It will be interesting to revisit this wine in a number of years. Forget it for 7-8 years and drink it over the following 30."