Château Calon Ségur 2021 is the Third Growth of Saint-Estèphe, the northernmost classed growth in the Médoc, from a cool, difficult vintage in which it was one of the Left Bank's clear successes. It is a precise, Cabernet-driven wine with the lifted, perfumed style of the year.
About This Wine
2021 was shaped by April frost, a wet, cool summer and heavy disease pressure. At Calon, leaf-pulling in June and a patient harvest paid off. The final blend is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, reaching 12.9% alcohol with no chaptalisation. The wine spent 20 months in new French oak. Critics were broadly enthusiastic, and several compared its classic, restrained build to the 1996.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Cassis, black raspberry, violets and rose petal, with pencil shavings and a little woodsmoke
- Palate: Medium to full-bodied and detailed, with fresh blackcurrant, graphite and very fine, ripe tannins over bright acidity
- Finish: Cool and lingering, with a light salty tang, cedar and lingering dark fruit
Serving & Food
Serve at 16 to 18°C in a large Bordeaux glass. If opening in the next few years, decant for two hours. Best from around 2028 and should keep well into the 2040s. Pair with rib-eye, roast rack of lamb or braised short rib.
How to Enjoy
Left Bank drinkers who like classic, lower-alcohol claret, and cellars adding a well-reviewed 2021 to lay down.
Product Details
Producer: Château Calon Ségur
Country: France
Appellation: Saint-Estèphe, Bordeaux
Classification: Troisième Grand Cru Classé (Third Growth), 1855
Vintage: 2021
Grape Blend: 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot
Ageing: 20 months in new French oak
ABV: 12.9%
Style: Classed-growth Cabernet-led Bordeaux blend
Format: 750mL
About the Château
Calon takes its name from Calones, the old name for Saint-Estèphe, and from the Marquis Nicolas-Alexandre de Ségur, who in the 18th century also owned Lafite and Latour. He is said to have declared that he made wine at Lafite and Latour but his heart was at Calon, hence the heart that frames the name on every label. It was classified a Third Growth in 1855.
The Capbern-Gasqueton family ran the estate from 1894 until 2012, when it was sold to the insurer Suravenir (Crédit Mutuel Arkéa). Technical director Vincent Millet, in post since 2006, has overseen a long replanting programme to raise the share of Cabernet Sauvignon, and a new gravity-flow winery was completed in 2016. The 55-hectare walled vineyard lies on gravel over clay.