Anson: Tasting Château Branaire-Ducru

'The epitome of the graceful, elegant wines that make this appellation so well loved,' says Jane Anson...

Anson: Tasting Château Branaire-Ducru

It’s now been just over one year since François-Xavier Maroteaux took over Château Branaire-Ducru following the death of his father Patrick. And just over 30 years since the Maroteaux family arrived in St-Julien, back in 1988.

So it seemed like a good time to catch up with the estate, on a sunny but cold Friday just before Christmas.

We sat down, along with long-term technical director Jean-Dominique Videau, for a vertical tasting of 12 vintages back to 1988, along with three more recent years of the second wine Duluc – a wine introduced on the Maroteaux family’s arrival to signal a serious intention to move quality upwards.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s tasting notes

There is always something special about heading to St-Julien for a tasting, and I have been lucky enough to do these a few times over the past five years with Branaire, often with the wonderfully kind and much missed Patrick Maroteaux.

It’s an estate that seems perfectly rooted in its landscape, the epitome of the graceful, elegant wines that make this appellation so well loved – so much so, perhaps, that Branaire does not always set the world on fire, and gets overlooked in favour of flashier, or more obviously impactful Left Bank wines.

The vertical passed through the last 10 years, then moved on to three particularly interesting wines from the 20 years before that. The wonderful 2005, which came two years after Videau had taken over as technical director from Philippe Dhalluin, the 1996 – a great vintage for the Left Bank – and the 1988, which marked their inaugural vintage. The last three in particular underlined how this is a wine that comes into its own with some bottling ageing, often delivering a clear break from its early years, when it can be a little subdued.

What is very clear is that it’s a mistake to dismiss Branaire as the quiet cousin in St-Julien. The 2005 is close to the perfect expression of why you go to St-Julien – aromatic complexity combined with an effortless sense of enjoyment, nothing out of place, nothing trying too hard. And recent years have seen a further shaking up of its overly-traditional side.

The wines are still never overpowering, and a signature freshness continues to run through the vintages, but there is a clearer sense of richness and depth of expression, and a little more willingness to seduce rather than simply welcome.

Château Branaire-Ducru fact file

1855 4th Growth

60ha of vines on gravel soils located almost entirely in the Beychevelle commune.

63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc

60-65% new oak depending on vintage

Eric Boissenot consultant