Winemaker Notes
The Grand Vin of Calon Ségur mirrors its terroir. It is rare, authentic and stirs the soul. In the most natural way, it reveals both great delicacy and outstanding intensity. All the magic of Calon is in this balance. The wine is aged in new oak barrels for 20 months, the tannins of the oak integrating harmoniously over time with the tannins of the grapes. The style is brought by a Cabernet Sauvignon which expresses its finesse without arrogance. Elegance is to be found everywhere, in the purity of the wine's flavors, in the delicacy of its texture, while its depth and length are also superb. The wine's extraordinary ability to age many years in bottle is another feature of the estate.
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
This wine does not include the blanket 10% tariff imposed in April 2025. When the wines are shippable in fall of 2027, customers will have the option to pay any tariff in place at the time or to keep their wines stored in a temperature-controlled facility free of charge in France.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
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.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2024 Calon-Ségur is a terrific effort. A blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon (picked late, between October 2 and October 9), 9% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, it unwinds in the glass with notes of plums, cassis and iris mingled with hints of burning embers and incense. Medium to full-bodied, supple and layered, it's suave and seamless, with good depth at the core, powdery tannins and beautifully integrated acids. At pH 3.50 and 13.1% alcohol, it's also one of the most classically proportioned vintages this estate has produced over the last decade.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Vinous
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. –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Decanter
Super ripe concentrated aromas on the nose. Plums, cassis, cherries with vanilla and some cinnamon as well as floral scents. Sleek and straight, the signature chalkiness straight away with bright, almost high-toned cranberry fruit. It’s not so wide or broad but really well defined and tapers with liquorice and cola accents on the finish. Feels well made, great tannin finesse, some chewy fruit and a feeling of coolness. 3.60pH. A yield of 45hl/ha. 100% new oak.
Barrel Sample: 93
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.