Phélan Ségur

One of my early visits was to Phélan Ségur, where estate manager Véronique Dausse gave a detailed summary of the growing season in 2023. “The weather conditions were quite normal with around 800mm of rain, 450mm during the winter, so only 350mm during the growing cycle. Spring was normal, but June was hotter than average, with 67mm of rain. Flowering was early, around May 28, a little later than other appellations. We had sporadic rain throughout the season and less mildew pressure thanks to 150 days of wind over 20km/hr that helped dry the vines. Thanks to the estuary, we had good airflow through the vines, which was considerably easier for us than in other places in Bordeaux. Summer was good, with a little rain in early September. We decided to de-leaf some of the late Cabernet Sauvignon in the first week of September to give them a month with better exposure to the sun. That’s something that we have hardly ever done before. Some of our neighbors started on September 5, but we began on September 18. It is the second biggest crop after 2016, so it took a whole month to pick. We had three groups of pickers, and we knew we would get extra pickers at the end to harvest the later-ripening plots of Cabernet Sauvignon. We changed the vinification a little. We continue using our selected yeasts for two-thirds of the production [also being introduced at Pape-Clément and elsewhere]. We find in trials that these produce the highest quality of wine and articulate the terroir and the vintage. We are also reducing SO2 during the vatting time. For the Merlot, we macerated a few days more, 30 instead of 26, as we felt we needed a bit more body, whereas Cabernet Sauvignon was a classic vinification, and their tannins were very ripe. It was easy to extract.”