I received a text message from my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan inviting me for a special wine tasting.  Sometimes, I have been known to enjoy impromptu wine tastings there as well; and this time I was asked what time would I be arriving.  Now, with all of the wonderful wines that they carry, the shop can feel claustrophobic with a crowd eagerly tasting some wines; so, I responded with a time, a little while later, I was asked if I could come at a different time.  That told me, that it was going to be a wonderful tasting experience, so I let them pick the time, and then I agreed.

The first wine out of the icer, was Chateau Brane-Cantenac Blanc Bordeaux 2021, a white wine from the famed house in Margaux.  Chateau Brane-Cantenac was ranked a Second Growth in the 1855 Classification of the Medoc and Graves.   The estate goes back to the 17^th Century, and was purchased after the French Revolution by Baron Jacques-Maxime de Brane.  In the 1950’s the estate was purchased by Lucien Lurton and is now owned by Societe Viticole Henri Lurton and is currently overseen by Henri Lurton.  There are seventy-five hectares of vineyards planted on top of sandy, gravel-bases soil, with an abundance of large pebbles, which are beneficial to the vines for maintaining warms and for excellent water drainage.  Three hectares of vines are planted in the Haut Medoc appellation of their property on gravelly clay soil and it is here that they grow their white Bordeaux wine and the first vintage was in 2019.  The 2021 vintage is a blend of seventy-two percent Sauvignon Blanc and twenty-eight percent Semillon.  The wine is blended and aged in a mix of 225 liters and 500 liters barrels with fifty percent new oak for eight months on fine lees.  The wine is a light yellow in color and offers great aromatic notes of yellow fruits, green apples, cinnamon, and new leather.  On the palette there were tones of candied lemons, tropical fruits, a soupcon of honey, velvety tannins that had a nice long lingering finish of lemon meringue; and I must stress that this wine was dry, even with the lively nuance blend of flavors.

The first red wine of the afternoon was Chateau Petit-Figeac Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2020.  In 1945, Chateau Figeac was one of the first Bordeaux estates to have a second wine, and it was La Grange Neuve de Figeac, named after a particular plot in the estate.  In 2012, the second wine was labeled Petit-Figeac and is now made from fruit from various plots across the estate.  The production of the Grand Vin is 100, 000 bottles, the production of Petit-Figeac is 40,000 bottles.  Petit-Figeac is harvested, vinified, and bottled to the same standards as Grand Vin, just with younger vines.  The wine is a blend of fifty-eight percent Merlot, thirty-three percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and nine percent Cabernet Franc.  The wine is aged from fifteen to eighteen months in oak, with about twenty percent new.  The deep red wine offers notes of black and red fruit, florals, and spice.  On the palette great tones of cherries, plums, spices blended with polished tannins; a medium-bodied red wine with a good finish of terroir.

Then we started a vertical tasting of Chateau Figeac Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe – B 1989.  Chateau Figeac is a forty-two-hectare vineyard that is rather unique as it has a much greater planting of Cabernet Sauvignon, compared to the other vineyards in the Right Bank.  The estate is planted thirty-five percent Cabernet Franc, thirty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and thirty percent Merlot.  On the average the vines are forty-five years of age, with some over one-hundred years of age.  The fruit is hand-harvested and then inspected by video-scanning.  After the fermentation process, the wine is aged in all new oak barrels for thirteen to fifteen months.  The wine is a nice ruby-red color offering notes of cherries, plums, florals, tobacco, and earthiness.  On the palate the tones of fruit were a bit feisty or gamey, with that delightful character of an aged Medoc, good acidity, with firm tannins, and ending with a nice decent finish of some cedar, graphite, and fruit.