Chateau Climens and Brane Cantenac Dinner at Cafe Maxx with special guest Berenice Lurton

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - 07:00 PM

This Event has been read: 2853 times.

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Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.
Andre Simon

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Every day above ground should be an occasion and it is here at the Wine Watch!

No you are not seeing double…We do have two events on the same night!!!  Which one am I going to be at??? You just have to guess as I still have not decided.

This event features not one but two of Bordeaux greatest producers and although it is still early in 2015, I predict this to be one of the best values of any event we will do this year.  The price of one bottle of the 1975 Climens is $225- you can drink this wine along with three other vintages and I have not even mentioned the wines of Brane-Cantenac.

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Chateau Climens and Brane Cantenac Dinner
at Cafe Maxx with special guest Berenice Lurton and Marie-Helene Dussech
Wednesday, January 21st
7pm

 

Pass Arounds

Spicy lobster philo purses with Andouille sausage

Togarashi tuna skewers and sweet chili remoulade

Double cream brie with duck and dried fruit

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Chateau Climens Barsac 2008
Price: $162.00  Sale $142.56

(93 Points) Tasted single blind against its peers. This has a very well -defined nose of dried pineapple, quince and vanilla pod that unfolds seductively in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a mellifluous texture, although there remains some oak that needs to be subsumed into the wine. It displays fine definition towards the finish with impressive length. Always a little curmudgeonly in its youth, this Climens deserves a decade in bottle. Tasted January 2012.  Wine Advocate #199, Feb 2012

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Baron de Brane Cantenac Margaux 2005

"Shows currant bush and sweet tobacco, with berry underneath on the nose. Medium-bodied, with an earthy, funky finish. Good enough. The second wine of Brane-Cantenac. Best after 2010."  Wine Spectator (Web only, 2008)

 

First course

Pink peppercorn sea scallop over purple potato and citrus-conch ceviche

 

Second course

Sautéed Hudson valley foie gras with brioche, Swiss chard, banana and pear

 

Third course

Veal tenderloin and crispy sweetbreads over root vegetable and potato risotto

 

Fourth course

Grill braised lamb osso bucco, wild mushroom polenta, pearl onion and red wine sauce

 

Dessert

Pineapple carrot cake crème brulee

 

**The flight of Climens will be poured once the guests are seated and we will experience these wines with all of the food courses as the evening progresses to show the diversity of these great sweet wines with many different foods.

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Chateau Climens Barsac 2010

(94 Points) Experience has told me that Chateau Climens 2010 never really gets into its stride during its first decade in bottle and the 2010 is included. It seems a little muffled at first, especially in the context of some very delineated aromatics for this Sauternes vintage, but it gains clarity with aeration. The palate is well-balanced with an unctuous entry. The acidity seems lower than its peers but this really benefits from time in the glass, becoming ever more pixelated and poised. While it pales against the 2009, this constitutes a follow-up worth seeking out rather than squirrelling away. Drink 2018-2035+. eRobertParker.com #212, Apr 2014

Chateau Climens Barsac 2005

Chateau Climens Barsac 1975

 

**The flight of Brane Cantenac will be poured to allow the wines to breath as the night opens up.

 

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Brane Cantenac Margaux 2003

(88 Points) Fully mature and beginning to tire ever so slightly, this blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc represents only 41% of the production because of tiny yields of 31.3 hectoliters per hectare as well as the selection process of Henri Lurton. Aromas of burning embers, scorched earth and sweet blackberry and black currant fruit emerge from this cuvee. It is an easygoing, fully mature 2003 that has come of age much quicker than I expected. Drink it over the next 1-2 years. Wine Advocate #214, Aug 2014

 

Brane Cantenac Margaux 2005

(94 Points) This is the finest Brane-Cantenac I have tasted in over thirty years. Unusually perfumed and already approachable (atypical for most 2005 Medocs), it reveals a deep plum/purple color as well as a stunningly flamboyant bouquet of smoked herbs, licorice, camphor, black cherries, currants, and notions of plums and blackberries. Elegant with silky tannin and medium body, it is clearly a classic statement on the Margaux appellation. While not a powerhouse, it is beautifully concentrated, stunningly balanced, and surprisingly forward. It could be drunk now after several hours of decanting, but it should age easily for 20+ years. Wine Advocate #176, Apr 2008

 

Brane Cantenac Margaux 2008

(92 Points) This stunning, evolved, dark plum/ruby-hued 2008 reveals aromas of forest floor, sweet black and red currants, licorice and roasted herbs. Classic, elegant and medium to full-bodied, it provides a sexy, complex, intellectual as well as hedonistic turn-on. Drink this delicious Margaux over the next 12-15+ years.   Wine Advocate #194, May 2011

 

Dinner is $195 + Tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

 

A bit about Frances and the world's greatest sweet wines:

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The wines of Sauternes and the neighboring district of Barsac were, up until recently, called the "dinosaurs of Bordeaux."  This reference to the majestical creatures that once roamed and ruled the earth is somehow appropriate.  These luscious, decadently rich sweet wines are the world's most exotic and at one time were the world's most expensive and most desired.  After the Second World War, staggering costs and slackening demand threatened the vignerons with extinction of the prized nectar.  Then in the 1980's the pendulum at last begun to swing the other way; and beginning with the great 1983 vintage (the best since 1976 and 1967), there was a renewed interest and demand for this great wine.  This has sparked an unfortunate increase in prices, -The Wine Spectator reported in the fall of 1990 that wine merchants and collectors were lining up to pay as much as $230 a bottle for the first release of the 1986 Château d'Yquem.  The auction market for these wines also began to heat up - older, prized vintages of Château d'Yquem and wines began to double in price. 

The fame of Sauternes reaches back at least to the time when Thomas Jefferson visited the area in 1785 and ordered a few cases of Château d'Yquem - in Jefferson's day d'Yquem was also the region's non-pareil Château.  When the great wines of Bordeaux were classified seventy years later, d'Yquem was so highly regarded that it was accorded the unique status of Grand Premier Cru - a higher classification than the great Médoc clarets like Lafite and Latour etc.  It is a little known fact that the wine Jefferson ordered was quite dry; in fact the first sweet wine from this district was not made until the 1847 harvest at d'Yquem.  However, it did not take long for these wines to achieve fame, for in that era sweet wines (Champagne was a sweet beverage then) were very fashionable. 

The process by which these great wines come about is fascinating and one of the examples of how nature can play topsy-turvy tricks and make decay a very beneficial rather than a harmful phenomenon.  In the fall, under certain conditions, (misty mornings and sunny afternoons) a mold forms on the skin of the exceedingly ripe grapes that are left on the vines.  The mold's technical term is botrytis cinerea; the vignerons refer to it as the "noble mold".  It often envelopes a grape and feeds on it by sending spike-like tentacles through the skin.  It rapidly shrivels the grapes and leaves their skins mere pulp.  The remaining juice is extremely sweet, concentrated, and packed with glycerine.  The particular conditions for serious onset of the "noble mold" occur only several times in a decade; and often the mold attacks unevenly, so the vines have to be picked over several times.   Sometimes growers lose patience and pick before the mold takes hold (for fear of a rain-out); the resulting wine is sweet, but it does not have that concentration that results from the shrinkage of the grapes from the mold.  The great difficulty and expense of producing these wines in tandem with a great lack of demand after the Second World War discouraged many proprietors; during the post war period, Climens and D'yquem stood almost alone in maintaining the great standards of the past.

The name Climens, appeared for the first time on a contract dated 1547, the name in the local dialect meaning "unfertile, poor land". The Roborel family were responsible for expanding the estate, initiating viticulture in the 17th century, and oversaw the production of both white and red wine. In 1855, Monsieur Henri Gounouilhou bought the property, in the year Climens was classified a Premier Cru. It remained the property of the Gounouilhou family until Lucien Lurton of Château Brane-Cantenac bought the estate in 1971, along with Château Doisy-Dubroca. It has been run by his daughter, Bérénice Lurton, since 1992.

 

A bit about Brane Cantenac:

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Brane Cantenac’s vineyard is carefully tended all the year round : improvements to drainage, new plantings adapted to the plots , severe pruning and de-budding to limit the crop and hand harvesting. When Henri Lurton took over the estate from his father , in 1992, he put into practice all that he had learnt  throughout his extensive training and experience acquired in vineyards all over the world. The wine of Brane is prepared in its vineyards. The family’s relationship with this land was founded by his great-grand-father, in 1922. It has continued through fine and less-than-fine vintages, through difficult or more favorable economic contexts. Such steadfast attachment has nothing to do with fashion.

Château Brane-Cantenac has built its legend around a vineyard of 75 hectares comprised  of different plots. The biggest of these lies right in front of the château of the finest bench of large-sized gravel within the Margaux appellation. This area which rises above the surrounding land is called the plateau de Brane it’s as if the earth has swelled up with pride to show off its potential. The layers of stones, from the former river-bed of the Garonne, lie as deep as 10 meters there. These are unfertile soils which also have a warming influence, favoring the region’s preferred grape, the cabernet sauvignon. They make it work hard, sending its roots deep to find sustenance.

Vineyards are stamped with man’s will. They grow according to its design and will produce their best fruit for he who has trust in them. A great wine cannot exist without this exchange. The time it takes to understand one another can seem long. At Brane, the learning process began 250 years ago, with the odd period of silence in between. The Lurton family has continued the dialogue over the past four generations. Since 1992, Henri, Lucien’s son, holds the floor, continuing in his father’s footsteps. It is his turn to strive for that ideal balance between man and nature which, alone can obtain the best from a particular terroir.

From mid September onwards, things get busy in the vineyard. The château nestling behind the Brane plateau ceases to be a haven of peace. It’s time to harvest and 100 hands and arms come into play, to cut, sort and then carry the bunches to the cellars. Harvest is the culminating point of the year’s work. All year long, no effort has been spared to care for and nurture this land, producing reasonable yields of around 45 hectoliters per hectare. The order to harvest is only given after the grapes have been analyzed and, above all, tasted. When each plot has reached the required point of maturity, a group of pickers starts work. Harvest often finishes in October in the flurry of excitement that accompanies any birth.

The transformation of grapes into wine is a short, violent and turbulent process. Called fermentation, it transfigures and focuses the year’s work. It requires some very sophisticated equipment which will only be used for a few weeks every year. The grapes are brought in and carefully sorted, variety by variety, and plot by plot. Then comes crushing, fermentation, maceration, pressing and filling the barrels. Every stage requires the right tolls and impeccable hygiene.

Brane-Cantenac has a long history behind it which has forged its identity. But between the sometimes stifling weight of tradition and the temptation to make a clean sweep of the past, there is a middle ground to be trodden. Brane-Cantenac has kept what is relevant in traditional practice, adding selected elements from modern techniques. The aim being always to handle grapes and wine in the most gentle natural way possible. For example, Henri Lurton combines the advantages of traditional wooden vats with those of stainless steel and concrete ones. Their moderate size enables individual treatment of batches. Such combined techniques increase the options available at blending time.