CALON SEGUR 2005

Clearly a disappointing bottle, the 2005 Château Calon Ségur was mature with a deeper hue as well as notes of darker currants, tobacco, chocolate, and gravelly earth. It shows some firmer, drying tannins, medium body, and a rather foursquare profile. This bottle wasn’t corked or oxidized yet, just never really came together. Let’s hope this was an off bottle.

Has a beautiful nose of crushed berry, spices and nutmeg, with a hint of coffee. Then turns to licorice. Full-bodied, with supersilky tannins and a long finish of vanilla, berry and cinnamon. Beautifully crafted. (JS)

(60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot) Bright ruby. Precise aromas of black cherry, leather and flowers. Then densely packed and a bit tight in the middle. Lively and powerful, if a bit less pliant than the unusually fleshy 2003 was at the same stage. Finishes long, with mounting, dusty tannins. A very solid, chewy wine that should require a good seven or eight years of bottle aging and last for upwards of 20 years.

Tasted from an ex-château bottle at BI Wine & Spirits Calon-Segur dinner in London, the 2005 Calon Segur is on par with the wonderful 2000. The only real difference is that this needs more time in bottle. It has a captivating nose: blackberry and boysenberry fruit coming at you at full pelt; dried blood and bacon fat developing as secondary aromas just behind. There is fine delineation here - an underlying mineralité sure to surface with time. The palate is very intense and disarmingly youthful, almost ferrous on the entry with layers of ripe black fruit that segue into an earthy finish (with a curious light tang of Marmite on the aftertaste!). It is a fabulous Calon Ségur, though the millennial wine might ultimately possess greater precision. We will see. Tasted March 2015.