1976 Brane Cantenac Margaux

1976 Brane Cantenac Margaux

Coming from an average Bordeaux vintage of 1976, I didn’t have any expectations for this bottle, as my impression with 1976 was just borderline. This bottle started to change my impression. Bouquet was strong cupboard, musty, while the underlying fruits surfaced slowly and finally after 2 hours the bouquet turned definitive fragrant. I wanted to talk a bit about the cupboard nose, many drinkers thought this was TCA cork taint (corked) wine, but it wasn’t, as this cupboard was commonly found in Bordeaux, the result of corked wine was that the whole content would have been affected and make the wine undrinkable, especially at this age, the cork taint would have been very severe. Thus, a sip and I decided that it was not a corked wine, and the cupboard nose blew off slowly over time. The strong, robust and powerful fruits initially was replaced with softness and finesse, a signature of Margaux appellation wines.