Steadfast ruby red in colour, and this is exceptional, really is showing beautifully, with plenty of dark well-teased-out berry fruits, great balance and freshness, cigar, tobacco, crayon, graphite, cassis, all wrapped up in silky tannins with the understated charm and drinkability of old school Bordeaux. 3.81ph, harvest September 25 to October 8, 46hl/h yield. Cool July, sunny August and September, and great late season, saving the 'vintage of the millennium' after a cool start to the year. Jacques Boissenot consultant, Henri Lurton owner and estate director. The only Brane ever produced without any press wine, because it was already so concentrated. Christophe Capdeville, cellar master since Henri's first vintage, became technical director in this vintage.

The 2000 Brane-Cantenac is a blend of 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 55% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. It has a really wonderful bouquet that is coming into its own: potent with black truffle and gravel infusing the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a saline tang on the entry. It is not a powerful or huge wine, but there is impressive length here and genuine complexity on the finish, with black truffle, cedar and tobacco notes vying for attention. Henri Lurton oversaw a really quite fabulous, almost aristocratic Brane-Cantenac in this millennial year. Tasted April 2015. - Neal Martin

The 2000 Brane-Cantenac represents the only vintage that eschewed any vin de presse due to a meticulous selection. This has a gorgeous bouquet that blossoms in the glass: a mélange of red and black fruit vie for attention as an underlying mineralité lends more dimension that previous vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with finely sculpted tannins, perhaps just a little spicier than previous vintage. Cohesive with decent body on the finish, this has mellowed in recent years and attained more sophistication. The 2000 is classic in style and approaching its peak. Excellent. Tasted at the Brane-Cantenac vertical at the château in September 2025. -- Neal Martin

Rather open, with a briary backdrop to the core of juicy plum, blackberry and black currant confiture notes. There are fresh anise and lilac flavors too, with the finish showing a cedary echo while staying supple in feel overall.—2000 Bordeaux blind retrospective (December 2015). Drink now through 2020. –JM

(17/20) Mid ruby. Lots of solid development even if not an ethereal heart-stopping moment on the nose. Neat and well balanced and perhaps at its peak already. Fresh fruit and a bit of lusciousness. Certainly no hint of underripeness.