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  • Country ranking ?

    687
  • Producer ranking ?

    11
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    Now
  • Food Pairing

    Beef

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

Fifty-five hectares (136 acres) at the time of the 1855 classification, fifty-five hectares today: the estate is a rare example of consistency of terroir over the centuries.

The vineyard is made up of one single block adjacent to the village of Saint-Estèphe. Unique in the Médoc, it is completely surrounded by a stone wall. Inside, closest to the château, this “enclos” groups together the most famous plots of Calon.

There are very few geological models that can be compared with the terroir of Calon Ségur. The vines delve down into a deep gravel layer that was deposited there by the river. This layer covers another which is predominantly clay. This combination of clay and gravel soils is one of the main reasons for the power and finesse displayed in the wines of Calon Ségur.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone of Calon Ségur. This grape variety makes up over three-quarters of the blend, and in great years its proportion can be as high as 90%.

No great wines can ever be made without constant and meticulous care of the vines. The soils are ploughed in the time-honoured tradition. From spring to autumn, vine canopy management tasks are done by large numbers of vineyard personnel. The crop is picked by hand at perfect ripeness.

 

APPELLATION Saint-Estèphe.
Third classified Growth in 1855.
CONSULTANT ŒNOLOGIST Éric Boissenot.
SOIL A thick layer of gravel laid down during the Quaternary Period. Predominantly clay 
sub-soil from the Tertiary Period. At the summit of the gravel deposits, there is also 
a fine layer of clay of lacustrine origin.
VINEYARD AREA 55 ha (136 acres).
AREA IN PRODUCTION 45 ha (50 ha planted).
GRAPE VARIETIES 53% Cabernet sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 7% Cabernet franc, 2% petit Verdot.
AVERAGE AGE OF THE VINES 22 years.
TRAINING METHOD Double Guyot.
PLANTING DENSITY 8,000 vines/ha.
TARGET YIELD 45 hl/ha.
HARVEST Hand picking. A first selection of grapes on the vine. Mechanical sorting of the grapes by vibration, followed by hand sorting.
VINIFICATION Temperature-controlled conical stainless-steel tanks. Maceration for 18 to 21 days.
AGEING 18 to 20 months, 30% new barrels. 
Fining with egg white.
AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION Around 80,000 bottles.
 

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Vintage 1945

The best vintage in the world – 1947 or 1945? Tastingbook has tasted all the best wines from these two great vintages.

If wine producers from different regions were asked to name the best vintages in their wine history, most would name 1947 or 1945 as one of the greats. If we then compared them, there would probably only be one vintage that most, if not all, producers had named on the list – 1947.

We wanted to test this theory and we tasted them against each other and the winner was 1947 – by a long shot.

The 1947 vintage was a magical vintage. It goes down in history as one of the only vintages that all the well-established quality wine regions in the world were blessed with superb weather conditions. Heatwaves have been experienced all over the world and, for example, all of Europe was blazing under the blazing sun and experiencing a heatwave during the summer. This resulted in very concentrated and very ripe grapes. Growers found it difficult to handle very ripe grapes with high sugar levels because there was a constant risk of bacterial contamination in less hygienic wineries that did not have artificial cooling systems. Since there was no technology to use, many relied on huge blocks of ice to cool the room temperature and even put ice in their fermentation tanks.

This vintage has proven to produce very long-lasting wines from around the world. The wines are marked by a sweet, ripe fruit character and warming alcohol. Due to unhygienic winemaking facilities, many wines exhibit volatile characters. Some might find this a flaw, but for many mature wine lovers, this feature is even a favorite character. However, when purchasing wines from this vintage one should be aware that there is a high level of bottle variation and the risk of having highly volatile wines is remarkably high.

1945 was an exceptional year throughout France, from Côte-Rôtie to Bordeaux. Due to the hot and dry conditions, the grapes were very concentrated and produced an extraordinary, but unfortunately low, yield. The 1945 harvest was an early harvest, beginning on the same date as 1982, September 13. The wines started life with massive levels of tannin and took several decades to develop. Due to the high levels of tannins, many wines still show well today.

 

 

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Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Long

flavors

Blackcurrant, Plum and Tobacco

nose

Intense and Refined

recommend

Yes

taste

Warming, Well-structured, Complex, Vigor, Ripe and Full

Written Notes

This is one of our much-loved Châteaux and the vintage is not bad either. We opened this bottle to celebrate Christmas 2003, and it was the best Calon-Segur 1945 we have ever tasted (tasted 10 times previously). It was Château-bottled and level was top shoulder.Dark colour to the rim. Delicate, yet an intensely clean, vigorous nose. Very full, long, and ripe on the palate with good fruit extract and backbone. Still tannic. A tremendous bottle!

  • 97p
Let’s also talk about the 1945 Calon Segur. In my humble opinion, 1945 is the greatest vintage of all-time; well, at least the 20th Century. It is stunningly great everywhere, and this Calon was no exception. Cedar, meat and new Chanel box dripped out of the nose, and its rustic edge gave a little pepperoni appeal. ‘Horse sweat’ and ‘aged leather’ came from the crowd, and there was great acidity and pinpoint balance to this stunning wine. This was a beautiful, and delicious, monster (97).
  • 97p

The 1945 Calon-Ségur is a vintage that I had never encountered prior to this magnum. Deep in color with just a touch of turbidity, it has a slight funk on the nose, though it is definitely not corked. Eventually it offers black fruit mingling with cedar, wild mint and freshly tilled soil, becoming increasingly peaty. The palate is well balanced with firm tannins that provide good backbone. There is a slight rigidity and rusticity about this Calon-Ségur, and at 74 years of age, unlike some of its peers, it is showing some dryness on the finish. It must have been a great wine in its prime, though in a larger format it seems that it is now past its peak. Tasted at Koala's 1945 dinner.

  • 90p

Calon Segur (magnum) 1945 – in advanced age, old aromas, some truffles, the fruit is decreasing and I don’t believe this wine will last any longer. 2-3 more years perhaps? 87p.

  • 87p
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Information

Origin

St.Estephe, Bordeaux
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