Bordeaux 2016 Primeurs: St Estèphe
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
– The Eagle, Lord Tennyson (1809 – 1892)
It was nearing the end of my tasting at Château Calon-Ségur, close to an hour in the company of winemaker Vincent Millet and his three wines, namely the grand vin, the second wine Marquis de Calon, and of course Château Capbern, which owners Suravenir acquired in a bundle when it bought the estate from the offspring of the late Denise Capbern-Gasqueton. It was a tasting we conducted largely in French. Strangely, although when I am in the Loire Valley I speak French to the vast majority of winemakers I taste with, here in Bordeaux it is much more variable. If they are clearly much more comfortable speaking French, then we do it in French. But many speak better English than I do, despite it being my first language, clearly a sign of Bordeaux’s remarkably international outlook. Or possible a sign of my poor schooling. Or maybe the fact that I spend more time texting than speaking.
Anyway, here at Château Calon-Ségur, I always get the impression the very talented Vincent prefers French. Having sipped my last sip of the 2016 Château Calon-Ségur, I enquired as to whether he would object to a final question in English. As it turns out, he didn’t, so I put my best journalistic expression on and asked Vincent what the 2016 vintage, or indeed the wine he had made in this vintage, meant to him. His reply took me by surprise. He looked wistfully into the distance, and orated,
“It is a Royal Eagle, flying with great power, higher than any other bird.”
Now I am definitely one for a little poetic licence, but this seemed like a fairly dramatic metaphor. A soaring eagle? Had my peering into Vincent’s world through the window of my native language, rather than through his, lifted the scales from my eyes? Had Vincent a romantic side never previously seen? Was he channelling Lord Tennyson? In truth I was expecting some reference to the huge expanse of young, densely-planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines, ten hectares all told, which in the 2016 vintage had been promoted from third to second wine for the first time. The new assemblage for the 2016 Marquis de Calon had definitely changed its style for the better, and perhaps Vincent (pictured) could highlight how this shift recaptured or underlined the true spirit of Château Calon-Ségur. Alternatively, I would not have been surprised if he had given a nod to the extensive new facilities used in the 2016 vintage for the very first time, the new fully equipped vat room and the new first-year barrel cellar, all of which will surely have had some impact on the vintage. But a soaring eagle?
