Chateau Branaire-Ducru2008
RED WINE
- Producer Chateau Branaire-Ducru
-
Blend
5% Petit Verdot
25% Merlot
68% Cabernet Sauvignon
2% Cabernet Franc - Country France
- Region Bordeaux
- Appellation Saint-Julien
- UPC 0 15643 49846 6
Reviews
Wine Advocate 91
A stunning success for the vintage, this enticing St.-Julien reveals notes of lead pencil shavings, sweet raspberries and black currants and a subtle touch of oak. Elegant, restrained yet authoritative and impressively intense, it is a medium to full-bodied, lightly tannic effort will be even better with 1-2 years of bottle age and will keep for 15-20 years.
by RP, Wine Advocate , 2011
Wine Enthusiast 93
A wine that appears almost too delicious at this stage. Through the black fruit and sweet tannins, the texture is immediately attractive. However, there is a dense structure behind this open exterior that should see it age well.
by RV, Wine Enthusiast , 2011
Wine Spectator 91
Dark and winey, with mouthfilling crushed currant and plum fruit pushed by even more fig paste and linzer torte notes. Lots of smoldering tobacco, charcoal and iron drives the finish, which has ample but integrated grip.
by JM, Wine Spectator , 2011
Technical Details
Harvest
Harvest begins on September 30th. The early Merlots are picked in three days by a small team. We stop during three days and the late Merlots are harvested on October 6th and 7th. The picking of the Cabernet Sauvignons starts on 9th and finishes on 15th of October.Tasting Notes
The colour is dense and deep. The wine gives off both ripe and fresh fruit aromas.Dense but elegant on the palate, it finishes with fine tannins, slowly matured by an exceptional autumn’s beginning, and on fresh hints showing a nice length.
Vineyard
Climate of the summer’s beginning - that means end of June, July and first decade of August - is wonderfully nice. Very low amount of rainfall allows a good drying of the soils.In mid July many plots show a moderate hydric stress, in favour of the concentration and quality of grapes. The last two decades of August are more difficult: storms begin to worry us about the evolution of grapes.
Serenity comes back in the vineyards with September’s second decade: a very nice dry weather settles down until the end of the harvest. Thanks to this we can wait for a perfect maturation of the grapes, even on the latest plots. Fruits evolute slowly but the magnificent end of the season makes it possible for the grapes to ripen deeply flavors and tannins.