This family-owned estate has produced a structured and dark wine with great concentration balanced by acidity and pure, creamy fruit. It is a wine with a good future. The aftertaste leaves juicy acidity and firm tannins. Drink from 2025.

Juicy and alive, this shines out the glass, compelling and charming with a searing brightness and zestiness - just great acidity that lifts the initial burst on the palate. The liquorice and clove spice is at the fore, as is the slight stoniness that lingers on the tongue, with the angles to the tannins giving the frame. It's forward and well worked, never too in your face, retaining the elegant aspect, but this has that tension and drive, straight and linear. Feels polished but not ready to drink yet. I do love the chalky, cleanness you get on the cheeks and the liquorice spice. Effortlessly balanced and definitely leaves you wanting more. This will be excellent in time.

Vibrant, lush, refined, elegant, and almost at the start of its prime-time, drinking window, the wine is packed with mocha, tobacco, dark red fruits, earth, and spice on the nose, and on the long, vibrant palate. Drink from 2023-2045.94 Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-tasting-note/?vintage=2015&wine=Chateau%20Branaire-Ducru

This pumps lush fig, boysenberry and blackberry confiture notes along, pushed by a rather polished but ample structure. Lots of anise and violet details cascade in on the finish, giving this extra aromatic dimension. Best from 2020 through 2038. — J.M.

More open than many 2015 St.-Juliens at this stage in spite of the firm, dry tannin structure behind the bright cassis. The tannins need some integration, but with some patience (from 2021 or 2022), this will become a rather fine wine.

(93 + points) Medium to deep garnet colored, the 2015 Branaire-Ducru reveals notes of blackcurrant cordial, plum preserves, and fruitcake, with touches of Indian spices and fragrant soil. The medium-bodied palate is packed with juicy black fruits, supported by ripe, grainy tannins, finishing long and layered.

The 2015 Branaire-Ducru has a deep hue, almost opaque in the glass. The nose is quite precocious, more so than the previous bottle, with scents of black cherries, cassis and blood orange. Energetic and focused, crushed violet scents surface with continued aeration. The palate is quite sweet. I just have one concern about the warmth of alcohol on the back palate, though that seems to be addressed by considering aeration, allowing it to coalesce and muster more composure, especially on the finish. Give it several years in bottle. -- Neal Martin