More from Phélan-Ségur, 2012
It is only a year or so since I last visited Château Phélan-Ségur, nevertheless I wasn’t about to turn down another invitation to visit during my most recent trip to Bordeaux. This estate might only be classified as a ‘mere’ cru bourgeois, but ever since my first concerted tasting of the wines, many years ago now, I have held the belief that the wines made here are of classed growth quality. And so a chance to visit, to taste and retaste, is always welcome, especially as these wines remain good value, within the sphere of Bordeaux at least. And when the tasting is accompanied by a delicious harvesters’ lunch, breaking up a long day of château visits, the invitation is doubly welcome.
First, before looking at the wines we tasted, a few words on the 2012 vintage. At the time I visited, which was early October, although there was a “harvesters’ lunch” on offer in fact not a grape had been picked. The growing season here had been no less challenging than anywhere else along the length of the Gironde, and thus ripening of the fruit on the vine was delayed, and lacked homogeneity. This was the case through to mid-September, and then some warm and dry weather towards the end of the month caused some stress to the vines, which further slowed the progress of ripening. Subsequently there was some rain which got things going again in the vineyard, and from this point on the fruit had developed a much greater homogeneity. Nevertheless, it was acknowledged during my visit that the Phélan-Ségur optical sorting machine would see a lot of use this vintage!
Of course, this was all several months ago now, before the rains in late October forced many châteaux to send out the pickers to bring in the grapes, a consequence of the inclement weather and fear of rot, rather than waiting for optimal ripeness of the fruit. When I return to taste the wines during the primeurs in April 2013, I will see what the outcome of this work has been.
The Wines
With no 2012 to taste I was very happy to take a look at a small selection of older vintages, beginning with the 2004, which showed a very appealing evolved character, with complex nuances of spices, and a gentle grip. Overall this is an attractive wine, although not unsurprisingly considering the vintage it is far from blockbuster territory. It was outclassed by the 2006 vintage which came next, which displayed a very confident floral and tobacco-tinged character on the nose, but it was the midpalate texture and supple, evolving structure that really elevated this wine to another level in comparison to the 2004.
