Château Calon Ségur, 3ème Cru Classé, St Estèphe, 2014

Laurent Dufau, Vincent Millet and Eric Boissenot have produced a powerful and masculine Calon Segur 2014. Some will lament the change of style here - there has clearly been a decision to make a more modern and more impressive wine, and not all of the team were convinced that this is the right choice - it has certainly lost some of the Calon charm that we loved. That said, it has a mighty impressive colour and some wonderful Cabernet aromas of violets, graphite and Licoreux de Mures. 14% of press wine is in the blend and this allied to more extracted style gives this Calon quite forceful tannins. In a different context, one would say this is wonderful with cool, decadent fruit, yet a restraint and class, however, knowing it is a Calon, it feels a bit ubiquitous. Impressive and sad in equal measure!