2020 Le Marquis de Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

2020 Le Marquis de Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

Product: 20208123770
Prices start from £150.00 per case Buying options
2020 Le Marquis de Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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6 x 75cl bottle
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Description

Another strong wine in the Calon-Ségur stable this year, showing depth and clarity of flavour. No getting around the concentration in the tannins, well balanced by brambled berry fruits and the St-Estèphe feeling of confident power. After an extremely dry July, here they saw 45mm of rain in three days in August, followed by another stretch of no rain from 15 August to 21st September. Helps explain the low 33hl/ha yields. 30% new barrels. 3.7pH.

Drink 2024 - 2040

Jane Anson, Decanter.com (May 2021)

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Critics reviews

Jane Anson93/100
Another strong wine in the Calon-Ségur stable this year, showing depth and clarity of flavour. No getting around the concentration in the tannins, well balanced by brambled berry fruits and the St-Estèphe feeling of confident power. After an extremely dry July, here they saw 45mm of rain in three days in August, followed by another stretch of no rain from 15 August to 21st September. Helps explain the low 33hl/ha yields. 30% new barrels. 3.7pH.

Drink 2024 - 2040

Jane Anson, Decanter.com (May 2021) Read more
Neal Martin, Vinous86-88/100
The 2020 Le Marquis de Calon-Ségur offers blackberry, briary, brown spices and undergrowth on its backward nose that demanded 30 minutes in the glass to really open. The palate is medium-bodied with a slightly angular opening. There is good acidity here, with a touch of herbaceousness developing on the finish that is a little abrupt.

Drink 2023 - 2038

Neil Martin, vinous.com (April 2021) Read more
Antonio Galloni, Vinous87-89/100
The 2020 Le Marquis de Calon Ségur is a powerhouse. All of the intensity of the hot, dry summer comes through in the wine's flavor profile and imposing tannins. Inky black cherry, smoke, licorice, cloves and incense build in the glass. Today, the tannins are pretty bruising. Let's see what time brings.

Drink 2025 - 2040

Antonio Galloni, vinous.com (April 2021) Read more
Wine Advocate89-91/100
The 2020 Le Marquis de Calon-Ségur blend is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, with an alcohol of 14.6%. It is aging for an anticipated 17 months in French oak barrels, 30% new. Deep purple-black in color, it bursts from the glass with bombastic scents of stewed black plums, crème de cassis and blueberry pie with nuances of violets and licorice, plus a waft of menthol. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of juicy black fruits with plush tannins and just enough freshness, finishing spicy. This is a very different style from the grand vin (Calon-Ségur), but also very delicious.

Drink 2024 - 2039

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (May 2021) Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20
50% Merlot, 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot. Cask sample. A touch more Merlot this year so slightly sweeter and initially a plummy, red-fruit profile, although the dark fruit comes through later. Round and full on the mid palate then with more length on the finish. Alcohol shows a tad.

Drink 2025 - 2035

James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com (May 2021) Read more
Jeb Dunnuck92-94/100
The northern Medoc did beautifully in this vintage. And the second wine from Château Calon Segur, the 2020 Le Marquis De Calon Ségur, looks to be terrific. Offering a great nose of damp earth, violets, cassis, and more blue-tinged fruits, it’s medium to full-bodied and has a ripe, polished, seamless texture, notable tannins, and a great finish. It’s everything you would want from a second wine and is ideal for drinking over the coming 10-15 years.

Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com (May 2021) Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Calon Segur

Chateau Calon Segur

Château Calon-Ségur, the most northerly of all the Médoc Grand-Crus Classés, is the château with a heart on its label. That is because the former owner, Marquis de Ségur, though he owned such Estates as Lafite and Latour, he declared "My heart belongs to Calon". For the last century it has been owned by the Gasqueton family.

Calon-Ségur's 74-hectare vineyard, which is partly enclosed by a wall, is located just to the north of the village of St-Estèphe. The vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon 65%, Merlot 20%, Cabernet Franc 15%) lie on up to 5 metre deep gravel beds mixed with sand and, in parts, limestone and clay.

The wines are fermented for 3 weeks in enamel-lined steel vats and are then matured in oak barriques (40% new) for 18 months. Recently, Calon-Ségur has hit form with notable successes in 1995 and 1996 and 2000. At its best, Calon-Ségur produces meaty and concentrated wines displaying excellent depth of fruit and superb length. It is classified as a 3ème Cru Classé.

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Saint-Estèphe

Saint-Estèphe

Saint-Estèphe is the northernmost of the most important communes of the Médoc and borders Pauillac on its southernmost border, with only a gully and stream separates it from Ch. Lafite. To the north lies the Bas-Médoc.

Saint-Estèphe is defined by the depth of its gravel, which is ubiquitous but of varying depths and occasionally very shallow, when clay predominates. This keeps the soil cooler and wetter than its counterparts so that the wines can appear fresh in lighter vintages, but superbly successful in hot, dry years. 

The best châteaux in the south of the commune have the deepest soil and the thickest gravel. Cos d'Estournel has an exceptional terroir with its vineyards being located on a south-facing ridge of gravel with excellent drainage. 

Saint-Estèphe is the least gravelly of main Médoc communes and in the north of the commune the vineyards are heavier and more clay-based leading to a rustic style of wine being produced.

The wines can appear austere in youth with a discernable ferric note at some châteaux, but the best typically display good depth of colour, pronounced acidity an tannins in youth and are exceptionally long-lived. At their best, they are the equal of almost any Bordeaux. The well-regarded St Estèphe co-operative controls the production of about half the appellation.

Recommended Châteaux
Cos (Ch. Cos d'Estournel), Ch. Montrose, Ch. Calon-Ségur, Ch. Lafon-Rochet, Ch. Les Ormes de Pez, Ch. Beau-Site, Ch. Cos Labory, Ch. Phélan-Ségur

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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