A distinctive bouquet with notes of iodine, flowers, fresh fruit and graphite, but its floral character takes on a dominant role with airing. Gorgeously juicy mouthfeel brimming with energy lengthening a finish that consolidates its profound substance but also reveals surprising subtlety and delicacy. This 2018 is perhaps an atypical Calon Ségur in the context of recent vintages, but it joins the ranks of the great ones and should gain in elegance over time. Cellaring may be required for up to twenty-five years. Drinking Window 2030 - 2060
Tasted by Yohan Castaing (at Calon Ségur, 26 Nov 2021)
Part of Tasting Château Calon-Ségur vintages from 2008 to 2019

Easily the greatest example from this château that I've tasted, the 2018 Château Calon Ségur checks in as 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Petit Verdot aged 20 months in new French oak. This dense purple-hued beauty boasts a stunning nose of blackcurrants, crème de cassis, tobacco, baking spices, chocolate, and cedarwood. With full-bodied richness, a layered, multi-dimensional texture, gorgeous tannins, and one seriously long finish, it hits that palate with 15% alcohol, yet you wouldn't know it by tasting it, and the wine is perfectly balanced, has incredible purity of fruit, and stays fresh and lively, with a clean finish. This magical Saint-Estèphe can be drunk any time over the coming 20+ years.

Deeply colored, everything here is intense starting with the perfume. The nose rocks with its espresso, boysenberry, blackberry, spice, tobacco leaf, thyme and cocoa. Full-bodied, powerful, dense and intense, the wine lingers for over 50 seconds on your palate, which is a good thing, because you want to hold on to all those, creamy, opulent, voluptuous, ripe, sweet, pure fruits for as long as possible. The wine was produced from 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, 14.9% ABV, with no touch of heat.

Aromas of redcurrants and plums with blueberries and black licorice, following through to a full body that’s so refined and polished, the tannins integrated wonderfully into the fruit. Fresh, linear and persistent. Real clarity and purity to this. Try after 2025.

A stratospheric, regal wine, Calon Ségur embodies all the best qualities of the vintage. Rich to the point of being exotically ripe, 2018 reminds me of the 2014 in its composition, but with more of everything. On the palate, the 2018 is towering and statuesque, with soaring structure and tremendous overall intensity. Striking aromatic top notes and bright saline underpinnings give the 2018 its energy, tension and nuance. As in 2014, the entirety of the château's Cabernet Franc went into the Grand Vin. Inky, powerful and explosive, Calon Ségur is a headspinning wine. Don't miss it! - Antonio Galloni, vinous.com, May 2019

The 2018 Calon-Ségur is blended of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot (14.9% alcohol). It is anticipated to age for 20 months in barriques, 100% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs just a little coaxing before it reveals seductive notes of baked cherries, warm cassis, licorice and smoked meats with nuances of hoisin, camphor, Chinese five spice and dried roses with a waft of cardamom. Full-bodied and completely packed with concentrated black fruit and spice layers, it has a firm frame of grainy tannins and a wicked backbone of freshness giving an energetic lift to the very long finish. There's lots of brightness coming from the Cabernet Franc component in here, but it is nonetheless a decadent expression. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, April 2019, The Wine Advocate

Spice, richness, opulence and power - this is one heck of a Calon Segur. The tannins and super-refined, carrying great minerality through to the finish which is long and pure. It's so balanced even given it has almost 15 degrees of alcohol. A really impressive wine. - April 2019

The 2018 Calon-Ségur has a classic Saint-Estèphe nose. Rather obdurate at first, it takes time to coalesce, revealing black fruit, charcoal and warm gravel scents, well defined but distant and not predisposed to charm the imbiber. In a funny way, I quite like that stubbornness. The palate is well balanced with firm tannins and fine acidity. Maybe this feels a little pinched compared to recent vintages; it does not possess the amplitude of the 2016 and 2017 and it is rather serious on the brine-infused finish. This is a fine and very typical Calon-Ségur, though it is not the most finessed in recent years.

Darkest cherry colour. Lifted and fragrant, very Cabernet Franc on the nose. Both black and dark-red fruit, almost raspberry, but pencil shavings too. Super-fine tannins, so silky already, so fluent, though there is clearly a density and concentration here in the texture as it builds in the mouth. Lovely dry texture on the finish, dark-fruited but full of life – I would not have thought this had so much new oak as it is swallowed by the fruit.Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com, April 2019