2021 Château Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

2021 Château Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

Product: 20218008756
Prices start from £102.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2021 Château Calon Ségur, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.
Bottle (75cl)
 x 6
£612.00  (£102 p/b)
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Description

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Cabernet Sauvignon 81%, Cabernet Franc 11%, Merlot 7%, Petit Verdot 1%

It’s 10 years since the Suravenir insurance group bought Calon Ségur. Their higher-density replanting programme is at the half-way stage, the benefits already evident. Once built around Merlot grown on clay, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the engine. The 2021 is an unqualified success. Gentle extractions have caressed into play a wine of pure class, refreshing yet intense. The fruits are exquisite, bright and floral, yet there are gourmand notes of lead pencil and cool earth. The tannins are fine-grained and graceful, seeming to waft across the palate. Drink 2028-2050.

Our score: 18/20

Berry Bros. & Rudd, April 2022

wine at a glance

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous95-97/100

The 2021 Calon Ségur was cropped at 36hL/ha and aged entirely in new oak for a planned 20 months. This year, the gap between the Grand Vin and the Marquis is blatantly obvious, to the extent that they are practically different wines, which is how Vincent Millet and his team treat them. The Cabernet is firmly in the driving seat here, with detailed, graphite-infused black fruit and a background florality that comes through with aeration. The medium-bodied palate displays very fine tannins, superb acidity (pH 3.65) and impressive harmony. This has exemplary build in the mouth, fine weight on the finish and a persistent aftertaste. An outstanding Calon-Ségur, elevated by the risks taken in de-leafing in June and waiting to pick. Bravo. 12.9% alcohol

Neal Martin, vinous.com, (May 2022) Read more

Jane Anson95/100

This is delicious, refined, poised, one of the wines of the vintage. Has the signature of 2021 in terms of cool and savoury fruits, with graphite and gunsmoke aromatics. A cool climate Calon, very different from the style of wines you have found here in the trio of 2018-2019-2020, but it is successful, and a fine example of the savoury, sculpted wines that were possible within the conditions of the year. Understated power, juicy finish, old school elegance. You can begin drink in around 6 or 7 years, but will age. On questioning, there were a few reasons for their success - they deleafed on both sides at the end of June for the first time since director Vincent Millet arrived at Calon in 2006 to aerate the grapes, and together with the dry August were able to get some natural concentration. Harvest September 28 until October 14, 100% new oak. 43% 1st wine, 36hl/h yield. Potential upscore when in bottle.

Drink 2028 - 2042

Jane Anson, janeanson.com (May 2022) Read more

Wine Advocate95-96+/100

A brilliant effort that will delight Médoc purists, the 2021 Calon-Ségur wafts from the glass with aromas of rose petals, wild berries, plums, Indian spices, woodsmoke and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and seamless, it's deep and lively, with beautifully ripe tannins and an exquisitely balanced profile. In spirit, this blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot is reminiscent of the 1996 vintage, though the 2021 won't go through such an extended period of hibernation and will attain a much higher peak of quality. It attained 12.9% alcohol without any chaptalization, saignée or osmosis. Tasted twice.

William Kelley, Wine Advocate (Apr 2022) Read more

Jancis Robinson MW17+/20

Fine, floral bouquet. Density on attack, the oak a touch present but plentiful tannins that are smooth and honed. Plenty of matière and freshness from beginning to end. Clearly has potential.

Drink 2029–2048

James Lawther, jancisrobinson.com (May 2022) Read more

James Suckling97-98/100

This is so finely textured with very precise, tight tannins. Medium to full body. Lots of layers here with black and blue fruit, stones, tar, dark cocoa and spices. Dried herbs. Long and persistent. Stays focused all the way. So precise. 52% cabernet franc, 43% merlot and 5% cabernet sauvignon.

James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (May 2022) 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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