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PRESS KIT

CONTENTS

nBRANE-CANTENAC FACTS AND FIGURES

nCENTURIES AT THE TOP

nAN OUTSTANDING TERROIR

nA PHILOSOPHY

nTHE SEASONS IN THE CELLARS

nTRACEABILITY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

nWHAT’S NEW AT BRANE-CANTENAC

nA DYNAMIC TEAM

nOUR 2007 HARVEST

BRANE-CANTENAC FACTS AND FIGURES

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· Surface area : 90 hectares (222 acres)

· Soil : deep gravel from the quaternary era ¹

· Grape varieties : 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 % Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc

· Average age of the vines : 35 years

· Density of plantation : 6,600 to 8,000 plants per hectare

· Average yield : 45 hectolitres per hectare

CENTURIES AT THE TOP

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Founded in the 18th century by the Gorce family, who gave it its original name, this great wine estate was producing one of the most highly regarded wines of the Médoc well before the 1855 classification. The high price of its wines gave the estate its rank at the top of the second classed growths. It came as no surprise then, when the dynamic Baron of Brane, nicknamed the ‘Napoléon of the Vineyards,’ bought up the estate in 1833 after selling Brane-Mouton (known today as Mouton-Rothschild)! A viticultural pioneer of his time, he was well aware of the reputation and the huge potential of the estate’s outstanding terroir, located largely on the famous Brane gravel mound. In 1838, eager to leave his trace in history, he chose to rename the estate ‘Brane-Cantenac’.

Sold in 1866 to the Roy family, who were also the owners of Château d’Issan, Brane continued to prosper. Before the First World War in 1914, its wine fetched the same prices as the first growths. The château was long known unofficially as the ‘First of the Seconds’. The Société des Grands Crus de France (a consortium of merchants and growers), which owned several prestigious estates such as Château Margaux, Château Giscours, and Château Lagrange, bought Brane in 1920.

In 1925, Léonce Récapet and his son-in-law François Lurton, took over the whole of Brane-Cantenac and the majority shareholding of Château Margaux. Lucien Lurton (the son of François) inherited Brane-Cantenac in 1956.

Whilst carefully maintaining Brane’s fine reputation, he bought up numerous classed growth and cru bourgeois estates. By now one of Bordeaux’s most cherished viticulturists, Lucien Lurton left his estates to his ten children. His son Henri then took over the reins of the family estate. Having graduated as an œnologist, his aim was to develop and enhance the wine’s pedigree quality, elegant aromas, complexity and balance, while maintaining a harmony that reflected the style of the vintage and the typicity of its wonderful terroir.

Substantial work has been carried out over the last few years to improve the vineyard. With state-of-the-art equipment and the estate’s outstanding terroir, Henri Lurton has put to full use his savoir-faire and deep knowledge of the terroir, adopting permanently some of the most recent techniques, to take the wines of Château Brane-Cantenac to the highest possible level of quality.

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1 : According to some authors, the 3^rd and 4^th terraces go back to the Günz era and the 5^th terrace to the Mindel era.

AN OUTSTANDING TERROIR

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The prestigious history of Brane-Cantenac though, is not linked to a personality or a family but to its incomparable soil, which has been carefully studied over the years by the top specialists.

Recognised throughout the estate’s history as one of the finest in the Médoc, Brane’s terroir long gave the estate its unofficial ranking as ‘first of the seconds’. The heart of the estate is an unbroken block of 45 hectares, which has remained unchanged for three centuries.

Henri Lurton chose to centre the First Wine of Brane-Cantenac on this original 45 hectare terroir. The expansion of the vineyard during the 19th and 20th centuries, however, was effected especially through purchasing new plots from classed growth neighbours (Margaux, Kirwan, Issan, Cantenac-Brown), which ensured that the whole of the production of Brane’s 1st and 2nd wines would be of very high quality.

The “Plateau de Brane”: The famous gravel outcrop of Brane stands directly in front of the château. At the top of the Margaux-Cantenac plateau (some 22 metres above sea-level !) thirty hectares or so belong to the estate and stretch out over the finest parts of a deep strip of gravelly soil dating back to the quaternary¹ era (fourth terrace). Thanks to the fine quality of the soil, the degree of moisture supplied to the vine roots is excellent. The 12 metre deep gravel layer contains large quantities of clay and provides adequate moisture all year round and, through its compact nature, limits any excess water reaching the vines. The water table here is very low (at 5 or 6 metres) allowing the roots to delve down without any risk of interfering with the degree of water supply. The upper layers of the soil are sandier and tend to saturate quickly after heavy rain. Most of the water then runs off the surface thanks to its topography. The soil drains more quickly on the days following a period of rain. As rooting near the surface is kept down through ploughing, the vines are less affected by heavy downpours than those in other terroirs. In these plots, the vigour of the vines is restrained, vegetation growth stops early –even in wet years- and the vineyard suffers less from summer storms or September rains than in the more classic gravel terroirs.

Behind the château grounds: Around fifteen hectares, together with the plateau, make up the original heart of the estate. The gravel strip from the quaternary¹ (fifth terrace) era is a more recent acquisition. The depth of the vine roots and the degree of water supply are linked to the water table which is higher than on the plateau (between 2.5 and 3 metres). The soils are sandy-gravel, with large pebbles, and the terrain is flatter. In this part of the vineyard, the degree of water supply is excellent even though the soils here are more affected by extreme weather conditions than those on the plateau. Reserves of water are therefore lower during dry periods (the soils are sandier). Conversely, the vines are more affected during continuous rain when the water seeps vertically down to the water table.

La Verdotte: Located on the other side of the road linking Margaux to Arsac, this ten hectare vineyard has the same geological pattern as the one next to the château grounds. The vines are later-ripening and can have less than perfect ripeness in difficult years. The gravelly-sandy layer of soil has medium depth. The vine roots grow less deep as they are restricted by ferruginous concretions.

Notton: A bit further along, the 13 hectare Notton vineyard is situated on a very good gravel plateau. This is a terroir of deep, coarse gravel containing very little clay. The degree of water supply to the roots is directly linked to the level of the water table. In 1994, deep draining work brought even greater benefits to this wonderful terroir by lowering the water table to 4 metres. The vineyard was completely replanted that year and is still too young to fulfil all of its potential.

Marin: In the commune of Soussans, 22 hectares are located along the geological stretch of terroirs leading from the château grounds. The gravelly-sandy layer has medium depth. The grapes here are harvested slightly later. Nevertheless, the central part of this collection of parcels is of excellent quality. This area of the estate’s terroir is historically less well known, and the wines of Marin go into the First Wine and also Baron de Brane. The adjacent plots cannot claim the same fame.

A PHILOSOPHY

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As a living, constantly evolving product, a great wine requires attention, patience and a certain degree of experience. Since 1992, Henri Lurton has made it his aim to produce each year the best wine possible while remaining faithful to the outstanding, historic terroir of Brane. Since 1997, a new, spacious vat cellar, modern winemaking techniques and a new team have enabled him to accomplish this task.

However, gaining a technological cutting edge is not an end in itself. Even when new ideas have been properly tried and tested, they are only adopted if they can bring about real improvements. At Brane, the wine production philosophy is more based on what the soil can offer. Henri Lurton seeks above all to achieve an excellent quality of grapes, which will be perfectly ripe and healthy. His role is simply to enhance their natural balance.

THE SEASONS IN THE VINEYARD

Seeking to achieve the best possible ripeness levels is the ultimate aim of every job carried out in the vineyard. Our vine-growing decisions are subject to the following exigencies:

· A pedological study of the soil is carried out before all plantations in order to make the right choices in soil preparation (drainage, deep ploughing and so on), in rootstocks (Riparia Gloire de Montpellier and 101-14) and grape varieties. Organic manure is a strict necessity for the successful planting of vines without excessive vigour.

· Densities of plantation ranging from 6,666 plants per hectare on the plateau of Brane to 8,000 plants behind the grounds and Notton.

· Médocain pruning is adapted to the vigour of the plant. The vines are pruned very low to benefit from the special microclimate created by gravel soil.

· A raised trellising in the whole of the vineyard enables greater canopy cover whilst maintaining a good degree of photosynthesis.

· Ploughing, alternating between traditional working of the soil and top soil ploughing, and organic manuring are the cornerstones of an environmentally-friendly wine-growing philosophy.

· Canopy management, which helps to keep yields low, the bunches well ventilated and exposed to sunshine. De-budding and removal of double buds, removing of non-fruit bearing lateral shoots in some plots, de-leafing at setting and three weeks before the harvest, removal of unripe second-generation fruit, as well as crop thinning ensure a moderate yield and optimal ripeness whatever the vintage.

· Spraying against wood diseases such as Esca (black measles) and Eutypa Dieback, with the pulling up of any diseased vines each year at autumn. The fight against grape worm is carried out using the sexual confusion method.

· All spraying decisions conform to the lutte raisonnée (sustainable viticulture) approach: observation in the field, integration of climatic and meteorological data, use of tools to help decision-making, use of a presence threshold for certain parasites before any spray, reduction of doses at the beginning of the cycle.

THE SEASONS IN THE CELLARS

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Harvesting and transfer to the vat cellar:

§ The grapes are picked by hand, varietal by varietal, plot by plot, at ideal ripeness levels to keep in as much fruit flavour as possible. The date of picking is decided after numerous phenolic and technological ripeness tests, but also through a tasting of the berries by Henri Lurton.

§ The grapes are given a first sorting on a table in the vineyard; then they are transferred to the vat cellar in small-sized stainless steel harvesting bins.

Harvest reception:

§ On arrival, the grapes are weighed. This provides specific data about the yields and the volume going into vat. After a second sorting on a table the grapes are de-stemmed. The berries are then sorted by an innovative system called Viniclean: : they are placed on a vibrating sorting table which eliminates any dry skins, grapes affected by millerandage, pips and tiny vegetal debris. A system of rotating brushes captures any pieces of leaf, stems or leaf stalks. A final manual sorting is done on a table to ensure that by this last stage there are no remaining vegetal elements at all. The berries are then crushed and sulfited progressively and then put into vat. The oak vats are primarily reserved for the best Merlot and Cabernet plots on the plateau of Brane. The epoxy-lined concrete vats and the stainless steel tanks are used to ferment grapes coming from the rest of the vineyard. Compressed air is used to flush the pipes and guarantee a perfect separation of one plot’s fruit from another’s.

Alcoholic fermentation:

n The musts are homogenised and undergo a cold pre-fermentation maceration during which turbo-charged punching down equipment is used to accelerate the extraction of anthocyanins and primary flavours.

n Some musts are concentrated using vacuum evaporation methods in order to increase the ratio of skins to juice when wet conditions have penetrated the skins and diluted the juice.

n The alcoholic fermentation begins after the must has been yeasted with selected F33 strains, so as to obtain a homogeneous yeast population. It lasts between 6 and 10 days depending on the conditions of the vintage. In order to achieve good colour and tannin extraction, in harmony with the typicity of the growth, long and frequent pump-overs are performed, delestages (racking off the must to another vat before returning it on to the skins) are carried out as well as targeted punching down of the cap of skins. Punching down was tested at Brane-Cantenac as far back as 1987 using the Guérin type vat. Since 2000, a completely new system has been used: the Socma puncher (this is a pump which is immersed in the cap and which floods the cap with the fermenting must, thereby causing the cap to break up within a few minutes. This results in a better extraction of the phenolic compounds in a gentle, selective way). Some grapes coming from particular plots are fermented in new oak barrels.

n The winemaking process is adapted to each vintage and each vat, so as to get the very best out of the crop. The wines are fermented at temperatures varying from 28 to 31°C.

Pressing:

n Depending on the vintage and the plot, the maceration lasts from 20 to beyond 28 days at a temperature of between 25 and 28°C. The decision to run off the new wine is only taken after tasting the vat.

n The skins are pressed in fixed post Sutter pneumatic presses, which are filled from the side to recover, vat by vat, the remainder of the finer free-run wine before pressing begins. The tops of the caps of skins are discarded since these produce lower quality oxidised wines. The transferring of the skins to the press is done in 500 litre recipients so as to keep the skins whole. Enzymes are added to the press wines to enable them to clarify quickly.

Malo-lactic fermentation:

n The wines from the best plots are run off into new barrels for the malo-lactic fermentation. Since 1993, experiments have been held at Brane, in association with the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture in particular, to analyse the differences between malo-lactic fermentations carried out in vats and those done in barrels. The conclusions of these studies prove that this technique is a genuine wine-making practice which brings numerous advantages:

1. Improvement and stabilisation of the colour