Margaux vertical: Tasting 11 years of Château Cantenac Brown

When Tristan Le Lous became the new owner of Château Cantenac Brown in December 2019, the French press picked up on one aspect in particular. Why was a wealthy Burgundian wine lover choosing to buy in Bordeaux and not closer to home?

Le Lous is better known in France for being part of one of the most successful family-owned healthcare companies in the country, URGO. Its headquarters are in Dijon, and for a while it was the single biggest employer across the Burgundy region.

Recently it has been shifting much of its work towards producing antibacterial gels to supply medical professionals across France fighting Covid-19.

Over the longer-term, the company has evolved into a global player, with sites and subsidiaries in 22 countries worldwide. The family’s wealth was recently estimated by Challenges magazines at €1 billion.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s Château Cantenac Brown tasting notes and scores

All of this makes Le Lous’ arrival in the Médoc a big news story. His own background is in engineering and molecular genetics, and he remains in charge of legal and investments for URGO.

Interest in the Cantenac Brown deal is also high because it involves the purchase of an 1855 third growth that is one of the icons of Bordeaux.

The Tudor-style red bricked building has been compared to both an English boarding school or, a little more poetically, the 19th century red-brick universities like Manchester, Edinburgh or Royal Holloway.

Where did this deal come from?

‘Both my grandfather and father lived in Dijon,’ he told me when we caught up by phone this week. ‘Although I grew up in Paris, it was definitely Burgundy wines that I first got to know, notably a Château de Pommard 1978.

‘But my wife is from Bordeaux, and since 2004 I have been spending more and more time in the region, and have fallen in love with its architecture and its ambience that is so different from many other parts of France.

‘When I suggested to my father and brothers that we invest in a wine estate, we began to look in Bordeaux straight away,’ he said.

‘We wanted to buy a reasonably-sized property, which is almost impossible in Burgundy, and to have control over our own brand, something again that is very difficult in Burgundy unless you are lucky enough to buy a monopole vineyard.

‘And when we were looking at the universe of Bordeaux, it was natural to look at buying an 1855 châteaux if possible, as these have the strongest brand visibility in France and overseas. We were extraordinarily lucky that Cantenac Brown was available, with its location in Margaux, its spectacular building, and its team under director José Sanfins.’

This is a private investment from the family rather than URGO, and their financial muscle is going to be a useful attribute when taking over what is certain to be a money-hungry estate.

The last major structural investments in Cantenac Brown’s cellars came in the mid-1990s under the ownership of AXA Millésimes.

Investments focused more on the vineyards under the ownership of British-Syrian businessman Simon Halabi, from 2006 to the end of last year.

All of which, in my mind, makes director Sanfins’ achievements extremely impressive. There is no question that the wine quality of Cantenac Brown has increased more rapidly over the past decade.

There have been particular improvements since 2014, a trend reflected in this vertical tasting, which covered the vintages 2008 to 2018.

Fact file on Cantenac Brown

Rank in 1855 Classification: 3rd Growth

Second wine: Brio de Cantenac Brown, plus white wine Alto de Cantenac Brown

Consultant: Eric Boissenot

Plantings: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc. Planted at 8,500-10,000 vines per hectare (ha), with an average yield of 45hl/ha.

What has been happening at the estate?

Even without new winery buildings, recent years have seen a revision of the smaller processes around production.

Changes range from barrel sourcing to lower-temperature fermentation and a decision to reduce the amount of first wine – or grand vin – to around 50% of total production.

The team has also focused on being more responsive to the needs of individual vintages. You will see quite different blends depending on the years, for example.

In the vineyard, work has included extensive replanting, the purchase of several high-quality plots and ‘taking more risks’ with harvest dates, as Sanfins puts it.

There has also been a progressively more sustainable approach in the vineyards, with the use of chemical fertilisers dramatically reduced from the years when yields were high, and plant-based fertilisers used when needed.

At the same time, the estate has fostered biodiversity through insect hotels, hives and wildflower hedgerows; it even makes its own honey. Cantenac Brown now has HVE3 certification, the third tier of the ‘haute valeur environmentale‘ programme for environmental stewardship, supported by the French government.

This is not, let’s be honest, the easiest of moments to arrive at a new estate. However, Le Lous’ lockdown has taken place in Bordeaux rather than Paris, allowing him plenty of time to walk the vineyard and get to know his new property at a more leisurely pace than might otherwise have been likely.

‘In many ways, this enforced pause has allowed us to focus more clearly on the plans for the future,’ Le Lous says.

‘We are looking at a new cellar and new winery for next year, but our work will go much further than that, aimed at raising the profile of the property to the level its wines deserve.’

See Jane Anson’s Château Cantenac Brown tasting notes and scores

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