Château Cantenac Brown is a 1855 classified third growth, located in Cantenac within the most prestigious Médoc appellation, Margaux.
The vineyard was founded over 200 years ago by a Scotsman, John Lewis Brown. This visionary figure selected the best parcels of land: his hard work and high standards were rewarded in 1855 when the Bordeaux Classification ranked Cantenac Brown among the most esteemed wineyards. A spectacular testimony to its Scottish ancestry: the estate’s emblematic Tudor-style château makes it the most remarkable property in the Médoc region. It seals the estate with the Scottish stamp of Clan Brown and earns it its place in history for eternity.
Today the Château is managed by the Le Lous French family and run by Tristan Le Lous, an agronomist from Burgundy with a passion for oenology and Bordeaux wines, and José Sanfins, born and raised in the Medoc region with 30 years of winemaking experience in Chateau Brown Cantenac.
A land art fresco made by artist David Popa with natural earth pigments, chalk and the wine lees. The collaboration highlights the ability for creation utilizing the natural materials that the earth has to offer which echoes the new raw earth cellar currently being built at Cantenac-Brown.
Aware of the importance of preserving the estate’s land and exceptional environment, the team at Cantenac Brown strives on a daily basis to respect its land spread over the prestigious Margaux and Cantenac plateaux, vines, wines and people, applying a global approach that seeks to minimise interference, yet without remaining unresponsive in the face of exceptional demonstrations of the forces of Nature. The estate thus applies a certified environmental approach, and embarked on the construction of a new raw earth cellar designed by architect Philippe Madec, which is one of a kind, with one-metre-thick rammed-earth walls for optimal thermal inertia and hygrometric regulation for the stability and ageing of wines in barrels. Built in compressed earth, the winery’s low vault will be a technical feat. Elevating vats will provide a gravity flow process for the grapes, in order to preserve their full potential.
The vineyard, covering about sixty hectares, is spread over the prestigious Margaux and Cantenac plateaux. It lies at the heart of the appellation, famous throughout the world for delivering wines that are both balanced and elegant, with lacy tannins that continue to develop over time. The grape varieties planted, which are specific to the identity of the Margaux appellation, are predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon (up to 65%). Merlot makes up 30%, and the rest is Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. The choice of grape varieties was dictated by years of observation, by tasting and by an in-depth study of the nature of the soils. The estate can be divided into three zones, namely 5 to 6 hectares of clay-limestone terroirs, 16 hectares of small gravel deposits and finally 34 hectares of deep Günzian gravel on the Margaux and Cantenac plateaux, which form the backbone of Château Cantenac Brown’s wines, as this is precisely where Cabernet Sauvignon is predominant.
