Chateau Calon-Segur (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2008
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Suckling
James -
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Robert - Decanter
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Jeb
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A solid red, with plum, spices and cedar character on the nose and palate. Coffee too. Full and dense, with a long finish. Solid red here. Superb for the appellation. Best after 2013.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted from an ex-château bottle at BI Wine & Spirits Calon-Segur dinner in London. I praised the 2008 Calon Segur when I tasted it blind in 2012 and I have no reason to change my opinion three years later. Here it has a surprisingly deep hue for a 2008. The nose is very detailed and lively, more breezy and carefree than the 2009 with vivacious blackberry, cedar and graphite scents. The palate is medium-bodied and slightly brittle in texture on the entry. The acidity is beautifully judged here with superb balance: smooth and harmonious, though it just tapers in towards the edgy, maybe angular finish. This has a sense of joie-de-vivre perhaps not common in Calon-Ségur's wines. It is one of the best Left Bank wines in 2008 and given its price, one of its best values. Tasted March 2015.
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Decanter
Lovely rich flavours are on offer here right through the palate. It's beautifully stitched together, showing wonderful expression of cassis and bilberry with a kick of intensity from the St-Estèphe clay, with a floral overcoat. This is not as intense as in some vintages but is drinking extremely well right now.
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Wine Spectator
Very pretty spicy aromas, with currant and blackberry. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins and a delicate velvety texture. Balanced and easy, with a medium finish. 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 18 percent Merlot and 2 percent Petit Verdot. This is much more Cabernet than normal.
Barrel Sample: 88-91 Points -
Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, the outstanding 2008 Calon Ségur offers a healthy ruby color as well as just a touch of maturity in its classic Saint-Estèphe bouquet of black cherries, ground herbs, dried earth, and cedar. This medium-bodied beauty is seamless, perfectly balanced, and has nicely integrated acidity as well as still-present tannins. It’s drinking well today yet has another two decades of longevity.
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One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.