Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Today, the powerful and brooding 2000 Calon-Ségur exudes Saint-Estèphe character in a style that marries classicism with exotic beauty. Dark-fleshed fruit, gravel, incense, tobacco, dried leaves and earthy notes open first in the beguiling bouquet. The 2000 is deep and layered in the glass, qualities that become even more prominent over time. Insistent tannins have finally softened, resulting in a wine that has arrived at its first plateau of maturity.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a solid, huge wine, with rich but very dry tannins. With its dense, almost black color, and its sense of brooding power, it promises long aging. It will never be in the opulent Bordeaux camp, despite its prominent new wood flavors, but will probably outlive all but a handful top wines.
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Wine Spectator
Lovely berry, spice and leather aromas follow through to a medium- to full-bodied palate, with firm and silky tannins and a long, caressing finish. A harmonious wine. Not quite what it was from barrel, but outstanding all the same. Racy Calon.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Back when my bottle reports came out in 2003, I urged extreme patience for this wine, which is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. I projected a maturity curve of 2012-2040, but based on this tasting, I would say the wine needs another 5-6 years, so call it 2016-2040+. One of the most unyielding wines in my tastings of the 2000s, the wine still has a very healthy, deep, dark ruby color, and earthy hints of herbs, licorice, and black currants. Medium to full-bodied, the hard, elevated tannins give this wine a certain austerity, but its outstanding weight, richness, and that very classic style argue for further discipline. Forget this for another 3-4 years and drink it over the following three decades.
Rating: 91+
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.