The C&B tour bus pulled into Château Phélan-Ségur’s gravelled courtyard with a cloudless blue spring sky as a backdrop. Phélan-Ségur was our first stop of the day, so we were on time for once and had a few moments to take in the rows of vines stretching away from the Château down a gentle incline to the Gironde estuary, which sloshed majestically towards Bordeaux, some 45 miles downstream.
We were given a brief introduction to the vineyards, which are lavished with painstaking care, “like a garden” as our hosts Fabrice and Véronique told us. Then ushered us through a cloistered garden into a spectacular tasting room with high ceilings and wooden balustrades, which bore more than a passing resemblance to a colonial residence in the American deep south.
A few brief words on the stats – the 70 hectares of Phélan-Ségur’s vineyards consist of 55% Cabernet vines and 45% Merlot vines. Average vine density is 7-10,000 vines per ha. The vineyard work is largely manual – a statement which we often hear without really taking in the vast amount of backbreaking work involved. As an example, they started pruning last November and are just finishing now, over quarter of a year later! Deleafing is all done manually too.
Phélan-Ségur is in Saint-Estèphe, the northernmost of the four principal left-bank appellations, which may contribute to the fact that it has never been classified. As a Cru Bourgeois, it certainly stands head and shoulders above its peers. The cellar-work is similarly micro-managed, with manual racking every three months and an array of different coopers used to fine-tune the exact make-up of the wood in each year’s new oak barrels (in which half of each year’s production will be fermented and aged).
We were treated to a fascinating vertical tasting of the last decade of Phélan-Ségur, starting with the still-tight 2010, which was bursting with young red berries and promises great things, all the way back to the 2001 which was showing very attractive tertiary characters of leather, but still with tons of spiced red fruit – a wonderful wine for drinking now.
Michel Rolland has consulted at Phélan-Ségur since the 2008 vintage. Véronique said his primary contribution had been to allow them to “relax regarding maturity”. The effect can be seen in the 2009, which although an especially fruit-forward vintage across the board, is particularly bright, vibrant and concentrated in Phélan-Ségur.
Château Phélan-Ségur 2010: purple-ruby, tight red crystallised berries, soft fine tannins but relatively textured; 51% Cabernet Sauvignon (CS), 49% Merlot (M); 14% abv
Château Phélan-Ségur 2009: lovely bright red fruit, concentrated, with slightly prominent vanilla/oak which will integrate once bottled; 58% CS, 40% M, 2% Cabernet Franc (CF)
Château Phélan-Ségur 2008: in bottle for a year now, balanced and harmonious, red cherries, classical in character; 60% CS, 40% M
Château Phélan-Ségur 2007: distinctive, concentrated nose, more restrained and elegant on the palate; winemaking was tailored to the vintage in 2007 (less pumping-over, only 16 months ageing and just 40% new oak), the result of which is a wine of good vigour and concentration; 60% CS, 40% M
Château Phélan-Ségur 2006: going through a closed phase, but will open back up; good red berry fruit and tannic structure evident at the core; 60% CS, 40% M
Château Phélan-Ségur 2005: a lovely full-bodied wine of latent power, but with long, soft tannins which lend structure and a gorgeous finesse; 57% CS, 43% M
2004: attractive soft red fruit, soft tannins and good concentration despite higher than average yields, drinking well now; 47% CS, 51% M, 2% CF (note the higher than usual proportion of Merlot)
Château Phélan-Ségur 2003: the canicule vintage – more garnet in colour, blacker fruit character and more spice, yet still pleasantly fresh; 52% CS, 48% M
Château Phélan-Ségur 2002: first vintage showing tertiary development when tasted, rich, with high density of tannins; 63% CS, 35% M, 2% CF
Château Phélan-Ségur 2001: garnet/ruby, leather, savoury spice, ample red cherries; pick of the bunch for drinking now; 60% CS, 40% M