This is a very classically structured Bordeaux with blackcurrant, walnut, cedar and hints of toasted oak. It’s reserved now, but shows very serious, polished tannins. Persistent and powerful with fantastic length. Very precise. Try after 2025.

Blood orange freshness with cigar box elegance, this is at once round and refined. One of the top wines of the Médoc. And while it’s close to 14.5% alcohol, there’s no heaviness or hot, jammy notes. For the price, it would be foolish not to purchase. Drinking Window: 2023 - 2045
Tasted by: Panos Kakaviatos (at Strasbourg, 24 Feb 2023)
Part of Regional profile: St-Estèphe plus 17 wines worth seeking out

The 2019 Phélan Ségur has a very impressive nose of ample blackberry and boysenberry fruit, plus touches of graphite, sous-bois and light minty aromas. The palate is medium-bodied, harmonious and poised, with substantial tannins and very good weight. There is a sense of completeness to this Saint-Estèphe that urges you back for another sip. The best Phélan-Ségur in a long time.

The 2019 Château Phelan Segur from Véronique Dausse is another brilliant Saint-Estèphe in the vintage, and this estate plays in the top handful of Saint-Estèphes out there. Offering lots of darker currants, spiced plums, Iron, tobacco, and damp earth on the nose, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a concentrated, tannic, yet balanced mouthfeel, and a great finish. It needs to be forgotten for a good 5-7 years and will be a brilliant wine over the following two decades.

Is this the most over-performing estate in the Médoc? Director Véronique Dausse would surely riposte that it's simply performing at the level to which its well-situated vineyards and detail-oriented team entitle it; but in any case, the 2019 Phélan Ségur is a brilliant wine. Offering up aromas of cassis, sweet wild berries, rose petals, violets, licorice and spices, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with tangy acids, powdery tannins and a long, penetrating finish. This is another 2019 that en primeur purchasers can feel very pleased with. WK

The 2019 Phélan Ségur is a rich, heady wine. A burst of super-ripe dark fruit, grilled herbs, menthol, licorice, smoke, incense and spice races across the palate. As good as the 2019 is, I liked it more en primeur. I find the bottled wine not quite as expressive, especially on the mid palate. Tasted two times.

Flowers, smoke, black fruit, red fruit, and blue fruit along with cedar and spice work well here. The wine has a solid depth of flavor packed with dark currants, polished, round textures, and a blast of chocolate-coated currants with mint and espresso in the rich finish. This could be the best vintage of Phelan Segur yet. Give it a few years in the cellar and it will be just great for 15 or more years after that. Drink from 2025-2042. Tasted March 20222