Château Calon Ségur 2003

This beautiful 2003 exhibits a dense ruby/purple color, a vigorous youthfulness, and plenty of mulberry, black currant and cherry fruit intermixed with notions of cedarwood, baking spices and roasted herbs. Ripe, medium to full-bodied, fresh and precise, this wine is just hitting full maturity where it should remain for another 10-15 years.

Loads of crushed berries, with mineral, lightly toasted oak and licorice. Full-bodied, with big, velvety tannins and a long, caressing finish. This is the sleeper of the vintage. Best after 2010. 17,500 cases made.

Very fruity, with blackberries, spices and flowers. Almost raisiny. Full, round, and pretty, with a lovely soft tannin structure and a long, long finish. This is pretty and balanced. Will be at its best if you wait three or four years. Find the wine

This continues aging and developing in a positive direction, the wine offers its sweet, ripe, spicy, earthy blackberry, tobacco, cigar box and cedar qualities with ease. Full bodied, with round tannins and an expressive finish, time in the cellar will allow this to continue adding more softness and complexities.

As so often, a rather racy, powerful Saint-Estèphe bouquet with a lovely sweetness, yet finely delineated with forest floor and truffle. On the palate, muscular with regal breed and grip, rich in extract with good depth and that distinctive “gout de terroir,” highly mineral with “gravel-like” reminiscences, elegant tannins, a slightly sweet texture and a long finish. Classy!

04: Impressively deep color with many violet highlights. Spicy, profound bouquet; bay leaves, tobacco, and plenty of blueberries, with a thick sweetness and a light honey sheen. Creamy, opulent palate with fine, fleshy tannins, lots of cooked plum, and a lovely breed that balances the overall opulence, with plenty of blackberry in the surprisingly rich finish. The owner, Madame Denise Casqueton, told us that in her long life in wine she had never seen Cabernet grapes as beautiful at harvest. And these evidently most beautiful Cabernets also gave her the most beautiful wine from Calon-Ségur. This great yet extremely delicate St. Estèphe is better than its own 2000 vintage! Tasted three times in total.

Velvety, dense, profound, complex bouquet of plum, tobacco, currants, nougat, rosemary. Dense, powerful, multi-layered palate with fine tannins, concentrated structure, diverse dark aromatics, compact finish. 19/20 drink - 2035

Cedar and spice aromas strongly marked by cabernet sauvignon, with the vintage’s full, pure and generous character; great length, not yet fully harmonized.

Logo on the cork: A (Amorim) Dark colour, medium intensity and evolved. Moderately aromatic nose, fruity, fresh, with a Merlot-like character. Suave. Round, tasty, pleasant palate with medium body and length, but a touch dry on the finish. Looking back at its history, I note that this slight dryness has always characterized this wine. Enjoy with a rich, fatty dish.

A powerfully velvety wine, which still packs a walloping punch of Saint-Estèphe tannins. The fruit, under these tannins, is pure, ripe, black and generous. But there is the proper dryness that shows how the team at Calon-Sègur managed to tame some of the excesses of the 2003 vintage. This will develop, slowly, into a great wine. Imported by Diageo Chateau & Estates.