Standard - 75cl
ETA: +2 years
Gérant Vincent Millet has made a siren song to Saint-Estèphe Cabernet Sauvignon in 2024, and it is a sleek, inky-black, pristine model with a sonorous nose and a cool, minutes-long finish. At no stage does this wine tip over into excess, preferring to stick to a terroir-soaked, refined and finely balanced template, which has seemingly absorbed all the oak perfectly while maintaining a wonderful sense of tension and poise throughout. Calon is always unique, and in 2024, it distances itself from its neighbours with its hypnotic flavour and ravishing silhouette.
As to the Grand Vin, the 2024 Château Calon Ségur checks in as 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot, hitting 13.1% alcohol and a pH of 3.6, all resting in 100% new oak. It brings more richness and depth, with beautiful cassis fruit intermixed with spring flowers, violets, lead pencil, and a terrific sense of minerality. Medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, and reasonably concentrated, it's all about finesse, elegance, and balance. It's a brilliant wine in the vintage.
The 2024 Calon Ségur is shaping up very nicely. Dark and ample, with terrific balance, the 2024 is another strong wine from the team led by Technical Director Vincent Millet. Readers will find a Calon Ségur of inner strength, its deceptively mid-weight structure notwithstanding. The 2024 is a wine of restraint and class more than power, never a bad thing at this property. The 100% new oak is very nicely balanced, even in the early going. This has great potential.
Deep garnet-purple colored. It's a little shy to start off, needing some swirling to bring out notes of black raspberries and red cherries, followed by wafts of cassis, mint tea, and milk chocolate with a hint of pencil lead. The light to medium-bodied palate delivers very good tension and bright, red berry flavors with savory sparks and fine-grained tannins, finishing with a refreshing lift.
The 2024 Calon Ségur was picked from September 23 until October 9 at 45 hl/ha with no breaks between those dates. It then matured in 100% new oak, as usual, for 20 months. This has a well-defined bouquet, with more prominent wood than previous recent vintages, which consequently obscures the property's DNA. The palate is medium-bodied with sapid black fruit tinged with black olive. It's quite lively, with a liberal sprinkling of white pepper and thyme. I admire the freshness of this Saint-Estèphe and there is decent length on the finish. This is not a top-ranking Calon-Ségur, but it should still provide up to 20 years of drinking pleasure.