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Château Calon-Ségur 2004

Time for another dive into the 2004 vintage this week, and after homing in on the 2004 Château Montrose a few months ago, this week I return to another of the big names of the St Estèphe appellation, Château Calon-Ségur.

In some ways recent events and the resulting trajectory at Calon-Ségur mirrors that at Montrose. At the turn of the 21st century the two properties were in family ownership, both were well-regarded names, and each enjoyed a loyal following among Bordeaux drinkers. Having said that, looking back from twenty years hence, with the benefit of hindsight we can also see there was room for improvement at both properties. In each case that step up came when the property was sold, the two families handing the keys over to big-business buyers. In the case of Montrose, the Bouygues brothers, who dipped into their telecommunications fortune to bankroll the purchase. The buyer of Calon-Ségur, Suravenir Assurances, had equally deep pockets, being a subsidiary of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa bank.

The change of hands at Calon-Ségur came in 2012, after the passing of the owner, the redoubtable Denise Capbern-Gasqueton. My chosen vintage for this Weekend Wine report therefore takes us back to before the change of hands, and the Capbern-Gasqueton era.

A potted summary of this era starts in the final years of the 19th century, when it was acquired by Georges Capbern-Gasqueton (1857 – 1922) who made the purchase jointly with Charles Hanappier (1796 – 1872), a well-known négociant who also happened to be his wife’s grandfather. The day-to-day running of the property naturally fell to Georges, the younger of the two men, who continued until he bequeathed it to a nephew, Philippe Capbern-Gasqueton (1921 – 1995). It was Philippe who married the young Denise Agostini (1924 – 2011), who many years later would run the estate after her husband’s death, until her own passing resulted in the property’s sale.

Obviously, that is a very brief synopsis; for a lot more detail, including the property’s origins and earlier history, and all my tasting notes, see my Calon-Ségur profile.

Château Calon-Ségur 2004

As a widow, Denise Capbern-Gasqueton ran the estate with an old-school approach. The doors were largely closed; I remember my first ever visit to the estate when I turned up in a group full of MWs, négociants and fellow Bordeaux proprietors (and no, I wasn’t the boy employed to carry their bags!), with an appointment to taste. Unfortunately some miscommunication or error in schedule-keeping meant there was no record of our rendezvous. The technical director and other staff had finished work for the day and left, and there was no yielding on the side of the Veuve Capbern-Gasqueton, who was content to tell our group to shoo! through a crack in the shutters.

Madame Capbern-Gasqueton perhaps had an eye for talent, as arguably the best decision she made during her tenure was the appointment of Vincent Millet – previously of Château Margaux – as technical director in 2006. With his arrival, the door at Calon-Ségur was a little more open (and my next visit was successful). Vincent stayed on after Denise’s passing in 2011, and also after the property was sold by her only daughter, Hélène. He has now been at the property for two decades (surely it is time for a celebratory vertical tasting?) and with the financial clout brought by the new owners he has benefited from a dramatic overhaul of the entire property, with an extensive restructuring of the vineyard slowly feeding into the style and quality of first and second wines, along with an extensive upgrade of the winemaking facilities, not to mention a thorough makeover for the château; its tired, drab, battleship-grey facade is now a thing of the past.

The 2004 vintage therefore marks an interesting point in the estate’s history, one of the final vintages not only for the previous owners, but also for the previous technical director. Coming back to it now, at a little over twenty years of age, the 2004 from Château Calon-Ségur displays a vibrant if not particularly dense hue in the glass. The aromatics, however, are gorgeous and speak of a quite complex character, with wafting threads of sooty dark chocolate, cranberry, currant and white pepper. It feels tense, taut, linear and bright on the style, the body here more nervous, reflecting the cooler character of the vintage (I imagine it would fade like a shrinking violet if tasted alongside the 2003 and 2005 vintages which flank it). This modest and nervy substance comes infused with a very fine and powdery core of tannins, suspended within the elegant, dark and finessed palate, all lifted by its fresh acidity. It concludes with a delicately bitter note, with a fine fade of powdered grip at the end. And it has length too. All in all this is a delightful 2004, exceeding my expectations for this vintage. Drink or hold. The alcohol is 13% on the label. 93/100 (2/3/26)

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