Château Phélan Ségur, St Estèphe, 2018
This completes a wonderful hat-trick for Phelan Segur. We haven’t always been fans, but chapeau to Véronique Dausse and Michel Rolland who keep raising the bar. 2018 was a huge, but pleasant surprise, 2019 was a confirmation that this was no fluke and 2020 once again highlights the potential of this Château. St Estèphe is blessed with plenty of clay in the subsoils so was better equipped to cope with the heat and drought. For the first time ever, Petit Verdot features in the blend. “Its expressive nose of remarkable freshness is an invitation to plunge into a ‘multicoloured and polyphonic’ world of fruit and flowers”. It is certainly dense, concentrated, powerful and extremely well put together. There’s an abundance of creamy, silky, dark fruit, nice and fleshy, but taut and sculpted with a glossy, seductive character and beautifully managed tannins. Another very successful Phelan.
critic reviews
The 2018 Phelan Segur is deep garnet-purple in color. It leaps with scents of fresh blackcurrants, warm plums, and clove oil, plus suggestions of pencil lead, cedar, and wild sage, with a waft of crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has sturdy, grainy tannins and a lively line supporting muscular black fruits, finishing with an herbal lift.
The 2018 Phelan Segur is composed of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Merlot, weighing in at 14% alcohol, 3.8 pH and has an IPT (total polyphenol index) of 77. Deep purple-black in color, it leaps from the glass with vibrant notes of crushed blackberries, blackcurrant jelly and kirsch, plus suggestions of menthol, Ceylon tea, forest floor and lavender. The medium-bodied palate delivers elegance and impressive vivacity with finely grained tannins and a refreshing line supporting the intense red and black berry layers, finishing long and perfumed.
The 2018 Phélan Ségur appears to have lost the green edge that I observed from barrel, now coming across fresh with blackberry, seaweed and light sea spray scents. It gently unfurls with aeration, though never slips into fifth gear. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, just a touch of dark chocolate infusing the black fruit and a cohesive, slightly peppery finish. This is a deftly crafted Phélan Ségur that will benefit from 3–4 years in bottle.