2000 Branaire-Ducru

Wine Details
Place of Origin

France

Saint Julien

Bordeaux

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

Bordeaux Blend

Reviews & Tasting Notes

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Drinking Window

2021 - 2030

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Drinking Window

2020 - 2040

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2018 - 2028

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Two thousand two brought the smallest crop here since 1991, with production down to just 35 hectoliters per hectare. Part of the merlot was not at all affected by coulure, said President Patrick Maroteaux, whose family owns Branaire, but there was a lot of coulure in the cabernet. The result is a blend that includes more merlot than the estate's 2001. "Today we smell a lot of fruit in the wine, almost like at the time of the harvest," said Maroteaux. "We consider the 2002 among the three or four best vintages of the last 15 years."

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Branaire had its latest harvest since 1993, picking during the first half of October, with no rot until the very end, according to director Philippe Dhalluin. In fact, he adds, the cabernet sauvignon came in with higher potential alcohol on average than the fruit in 2000 ("the weather after October 9 was great"), and the pH of the 2001 is actually a bit higher than that of the 2000. Dhalluin describes the young 2001 as "a rich, deep, fruity wine, analytically very much like the 2000. We were careful about extraction: we'd much rather do a long and gentle maceration than a lot of pumping over."

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As of mid-July, 2000 was shaping up as one of the worst vintages of the last hundred years, director Philippe Dhalluin told me at the end of March. But then came a near-miraculous second half of the growing season, and the fruit finally ripened: Branaire harvested late, beginning the merlot on September 25 and finishing up the cabernet on October 10, just before persistent rains began. Dhalluin describes the 2000 as more opulent at the outset than this estate superb '96, but notes that the earlier vintage may be more elegant and classic. Still, he says, the 2000 shows a sappy freshness to go along with its big tannins. Incidentally, Dhalluin convinced me that the key to Branaire's characteristic chocolatey quality is not its merlot, but rather a parcel of old cabernet vines planted on late-ripening chalk and red clay soil in St. Laurent, a few kilometers west of the chateau. "This fruit always adds an exotic aspect to our wine," said Dhalluin. "If we vinified it by itself, we could make a very interesting vin de garage." We then both agreed that that would be a bad move for a major Medoc chateau.