Winemaker Notes
The estate's Second Wine offers a different interpretation of the Calon terroir. With an average of 75% Merlot in the blends, Le Marquis de Calon Ségur is totally distinct from the First Wine. "It benefits from a true expression of its own," underlines Vincent Millet. "The plots are separated out from the beginning." Le Marquis de Calon Ségur provides immediate enjoyment, warmth and a velvety texture. It is carefully aged generally for 17 months in oak barrels, a third of which are new. Deliciously easy-drinking, silky and expressive, its charm comes to the fore, while at the same time bringing to minds the elegance of the Grand Vin.
Blend: 50% Merlot, 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Graphite and dark fruit come through clearly on the nose and follow through to a medium body with dusty tannins and a juicy finish. Attractive and pure fruit with a hint of chocolate at the end. A solid second wine for Calon Segur. 50% merlot, 48% cabernet sauvignon, 1% petit verdot and 1% cabernet franc. Drink after 2027.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Cassis, spicy red fruits, leather, and dried flower notes all shine in the 2023 Le Marquis De Calon Ségur, a medium to full-bodied, fruit-loaded, velvety second wine that has serious character, as well as a touch of Grand Vin-like style. It should shine right out of the gate.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Le Marquis de Calon-Ségur is a blend of 50% Merlot and 48% Cabernet Sauvignon with the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, incorporating the estate's finest Merlot plots that generally go into the grand vin but which didn't match with Calon's best Cabernet Sauvignon lots this year. Offering up aromas of cassis, plums, burning embers and spices, framed by a deft touch of new oak, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and structured, with impressive density and muscle, built for the cellar.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Vinous
The 2023 Le Marquis de Calon Ségur is a bright, beautifully focused wine. Graphite, lavender, mocha, chocolate, incense, licorice and crushed rocks all run through this gorgeous, wonderfully inviting Saint-Estèphe. This is an especially serious Le Marquis, perhaps because of the inclusion of some Merlot lots that usually go into the Grand Vin. In this tasting, I find the aromatic presence and structure of the Cabernet highly expressive and very much in the foreground. What a gorgeous wine this is. –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Decanter
Dark fragrance to the nose. A little tight but this also has an ease about it with density to the grippy tannins that have a fruity, fleshy aspect to them as well as a clear wet stone, slate minerality that lingers on the tongue. A little firm on the finish, but structured and polished still with a juicy mouthwatering red cherry centre. Will be nice to taste it calms. Not so long but there’s nice character here nonetheless. 3.6pH. Ageing 17 months, 30% new. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend.
Barrel Sample: 91 -
Wine Spectator
The slightly firm frame of chalk and wet earth guides a core of lightly steeped black currant and black cherry fruit along. Hints of chestnut and leather enter on the back end, lending a pleasant rusticity. For fans of the style. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
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.