2021 Calon Ségur

Calon Ségur has been quite the roller coaster in recent years. I am not sure if that is more a question of its location in the northern Médoc or choices made by the technical team, but the wines here of late have been highly variable in interpretation. To be clear, I am talking more about style than quality. As for the 2021s, they are magnificent. Readers will find a set of super-classic wines that have little in common with the wines of the preceding three vintages.

We had good weather at the end of May and early June. As a result, flowering was fast and homogenous. Rain was abundant in June. We saw lower sun levels in the summer, unlike the preceding three vintages, and no heat spikes, unlike 2019 and 2020. Rain in July and August was normal.

Harvest ran from September 28 to Oct 2 for the Merlot, then October 4 to October 14 for the Cabernets. Yields were 36 hectoliters per hectare and alcohols around 13%, a significant departure from recent vintages. "We deleafed in June rather than July to encourage air circulation, which helps promote health in the vineyard," Technical Director Vincent Millet explained. "The last 20 days were warm and dry. They really shaped the vintage." In tasting, it is pretty clear the 2021s are special wines.

Winemaker Vincent Millet explained the growing season from his perspective when I called in at Calon-Ségur. Perhaps, for the first time, in my 24-years of visiting this appellation, I believe that the gambles Millet took have produced the best Saint-Estèphe in 2021. Tasted in between Cos d’Estournel and Montrose, it had more precision, more completeness. So how did he throw the dice?

“We had to make a lot of action in the vineyard, especially in June,” he explained. “At Capbern and Calon-Ségur we did not suffer frost damage because of the protection afforded by the Gironde. In June, we de-leafed on both sides to increase air circulation, which is something we had not done before. That was a risk because it might have been hot and sunny afterward [thereby burning the berries]. We removed 25-30% of the Merlot bunches and 10-20% for the Cabernet Sauvignon. But in the end, we had to conduct a green harvest in August because it was not very sunny or warm. The third element is that we had the nerve to wait for the picking as there were storms forecasted, which prompted some people to pick early. Waiting was beneficial for the maturity of the Cabernet, so we ended up picking on 28 September, one of the latest harvests ever, finishing on 2 October for the Merlot; the Cabernet and Petit Verdot were picked from 4 to 13 October. The last vintage picked that late was 2012. The alcohol is low, 12.8% for Capbern and 12.9% for the Calon-Ségur. The Merlot did not suffer dilution because we conducted a green harvest, and consequently, quality between clay and gravel soils was not different. In the end, around 43% of the fruit was selected for the Grand Vin, which contains 7% Merlot. But the Cabernet is the star of the vintage.”