Château Phélan Ségur, St Estèphe,

The 2020 Phelan Segur is a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it comes skipping out of the glass with youthful, carefree scents of redcurrant jelly, blackcurrant pastilles, black raspberries, and mulberries, plus suggestions of red roses, underbrush, crushed rocks, and graphite, plus a waft of cedar. The medium-bodied palate is super-intense yet wonderfully elegant, delivering arresting floral and mineral accents to the layers of red and black fruits, all framed by firm, very fine-grained tannins. The finish is fantastically long, fragrant, and uplifting.

The 2020 Phélan Ségur, which was picked 16 September to 1 October, and is the first vintage with four varieties in the blend i.e. Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot as well as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. It fulfils the promise that it showed from barrel. Not quite as intense on the nose, yet it has retained that Pauillac-inspired allure thanks to those subtle pencil box and cedar scents infusing the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a cohesive, well-knit entry. Lovely texture, very pure, this is one of the most seductive Phélan that I can recall at this stage and I adored the classicism and graphite note that lingers on the aftertaste. Superb.