***2017 BWE WINE OF THE YEAR: 2014 CHATEAU CALON SEGUR***

[JimHow]

I am pleased to announce the 2017 Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts Wine of the Year:

2014 CHATEAU CALON SEGUR

The celebration of this wine is in recognition of not only its excellence in this vintage, but of the consistent performance of Chateau Calon Segur over decades of excellence. Its style has evolved somewhat but it is still very much northern Medoc, so representative of St. Estephe, one of the most distinctive wine regions in the world. This 18th BWE Wine of the Year is the first to feature a St. Estephe! Calon Segur has been really on a roll in recent decades. Nicolas brought a delicious 2011 to dinner in Quebec last winter. This 2014 presents quite a different style from the 2011... it is much bigger than the more elegant 2011, but the tannins are round and sweet and the class and distinction exude from the glass. This is also a celebration of the 2014 vintage, which seems to have become a bit of a pleasant surprise as they have hit the shelves in bottle. The 2014 Calon Segur will be long-lived. It has great, rich, black fruit, cassis, and cedar, a touch more "modern" but by no means any sort of sell out, I still consider this very traditional Bordeaux. Patrick, Chris, and I had this in San Francisco in the spring and we loved it. I have about 19 bottles in the cellar! And who doesn't love Calon Segur, one of the truly great, legendary estates in the heart of the northern Medoc, with the iconic heart on the label. And the price is rational as well. A true celebration of the greatness of Bordeaux!

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. There are numerous honorable mentions, including 2014 Leoville Barton, 2014 Meyney, and 2014 Coutet.

But it is the 2014 Chateau Calon Segur that rises above the rest and enters into the pantheon of greatness, the hallowed list of BWE Wines of the Year:

2000: 1996 Sociando-Mallet
2001: 1989 Lynch-Bages
2002: 1995 d'Yquem
2003: 1999 Haut Brion Blanc
2004: 2000 Pichon Baron and 2000 du Tertre
2005: 2000 Margaux
2006: 2003 Pontet-Canet
2007: 2002 Leoville Poyferre
2008: 2005 Burgundy vintage (protest vote)
2009: 1989 Lafite Rothschild
2010: 2005 Cantemerle
2011: 2008 Leoville Poyferre
2012: 2009 Giscours
2013: 2004 Smith Haut Lafitte
2014: 2010 Chasse Spleen
2015: 2012 Leoville Las Cases
2016: 2012 Barde-Haut
2017: 2014 Calon Segur

So it is written. So it shall be done.

Happy New Year, peace and health to all Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts around the globe!

Best Wishes,

JimHow
Benevolent Dictator
Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

[Ognik]

Perfect.
Ordered a few bottles already.

[danzur]

Nice...I've got 6 in the cellar....may need to open one to celebrate...

[Comte Flaneur]

A very ‘wise’ choice if I may be so bold, demonstrating the true sagacity of our Benevolent Dictator.

[Racer Chris]

Hear, Hear!
A wise choice indeed.
Clearly the best QPR of the appellation in 2014, with only Montrose and Cos d'Estournel exceeding it in delivery.
Two bottles in my cellar already.

[stefan]

I have yet to taste the 2014, but I like the choice of Calon-Segur as it has been one of our favorites for many years.

It almost makes up for your wretched choice last year.

[AKR]

Johnny Depp says "Truly a great choice, I drink a bottle for breakfast every day"

[Comte Flaneur]

Marks out of ten (ex-post) for previous awards:

2000: 1996 Sociando-Mallet -7
2001: 1989 Lynch-Bages - 9
2002: 1995 d'Yquem - 8
2003: 1999 Haut Brion Blanc - 6
2004: 2000 Pichon Baron and 2000 du Tertre -8
2005: 2000 Margaux - 7
2006: 2003 Pontet-Canet - 5 (3 to 8)
2007: 2002 Leoville Poyferre - 3
2008: 2005 Burgundy vintage (protest vote) - 0
2009: 1989 Lafite Rothschild - 10
2010: 2005 Cantermerle - 7
2011: 2008 Leoville Poyferre - 3
2012: 2009 Giscours - 5
2013: 2004 Smith Haut Lafitte - 9
2014: 2010 Chasse Spleen - 6
2015: 2012 Leoville Las Cases - 10
2016: 2012 Barde-Haut - 2
2017: 2014 Calon Segur - ? (Est. 8)

[jckba]

"I make wine at Lafite and Latour but my heart is at Calon Segur."

A worthy choice indeed if I do say so myself

[DavidG]

A well-reasoned choice, Jim.

Johnny Depp says "Truly a great choice, I drink a bottle for breakfast every day"

Only one?

[dstgolf]

Jim,

2017 must have been a good year. Seeing and thinking clearer now after that miserable pick last year and I have no way of conceiving the thought process for those 2 Leoville Poyferre in the past(never a fan of their wines) and never seeing a Leoville Barton is a travesty. Burgundy protest vote took the cake though...an all time low but can't knock there have been some very good 2005 Burgs but I still think 2005 Bordeaux will far surpass its Burg counterpart for a vintage. Calon Segur I can get my head around even though I haven't tried it it's recent track record supports the vote. Well done.

[robertgoulet]

great pick Jim to atone for your 2016 sin!!!
Everytime I see it all I can think about is that BeeGee's song 'Tragedy'

FYI, I absolutely love that Calon Segur quote above which gives significance to the heart label...well done

Congrats Calon Segur!

[robertgoulet]

locally the Calon Segur is $75 ...what r u guys seeing?

[JimHow]

Mid-sixties on sale in NH.

[Racer Chris]

locally the Calon Segur is $75 ...what r u guys seeing?

I can get it here for $63 at total wine. The store has magnums in stock for $126.

[Nicklasss]

Great choice Jim, and I can only support as I thought it was one of the best Bordeaux to suggest for this year.

Happy New Year to everyone, and may 2018 be good and healthy for all of you.

Nic

[Carlos Delpin]

Quick question, is young Bordeaux such as 2014 akin to young Napa cab in terms of concentration and structure? I’ve never tasted a Bordeaux at that age.

[Gerry M.]

I woke up early this new years' morning while everyone else decided to sleep in. I was bored silly and started to check up on a few things on the web when I noticed today was the last day of the NH French wine sale. I noticed that one store still had 10 bottles of the 14' Colon Segur. The store is about an hour away so I called them just to confirm they really did have it and happily they did. I asked them to put it aside telling them I'd be there in an hour. I drove as quickly as I could and scooped up all 10 at the sale price. Happy New Year everyone!

[JimHow]

A great BWE start to the year Gerry, very well done indeed!
I picked up quite a bit of 2014 Bordeaux in that 15% off December sale.
What vintage(s) of Dom Perignon does NH currently have in stock?

[Gerry M.]

Mostly 2009 now. A few stores still have a little 2006 kicking around. On the sale it netted to $120/btl. I'm hearing some promising early reports on 2009 and the expectation is they'll be a sizable price increase when 2008 is eventually released.

Its a little scary how much 2014 I have, just over 100 bottles, but it offered so many very attractive wines at about as good a pricing you can hope for these days.

[Claudius2]

Folks,
I quite like CS but have not tried the 2014, in fact, have tried only a handful of wines from that vintage.
However, I did buy the 2009, 2010 and 2016 CS in OWC.

I am however trying to understand the appeal of 2014.
The local importers here in Asia did not seem to have a lot of time for it, thus the indents came and went quickly, maybe not as fast as 2013, which some importers here gave a complete miss to.

I am however starting to see a few cases of 2014's on the secondary market and being an auction lover, will look out for the CS.

Comte Flaneur,
Can you please explain if the ratings were for the wines per se, or for the choices of WOTY???

[Antoine]

I have a box of calon 2006 and nerver dared to touch it. Is it any good and any ready?

[JimHow]

Don't think I've ever had the 2006 Antoine but most Bordeaux should be consumed between 8-20 years of vintage.

[JimHow]

[DavidG]

Antoine, I like Bordeaux older than Jim does. Most of those I'm interested in start to drink well at 15 years. Though I've never had it, I would guess that would be the case for your 2006 Calon Segur. People on CellarTracker whose palates are similar to mine say to start opening them in about 5 years. Jeff Leve, on drinking one in 2016, said wait another decade. If you've got a case, couldn't hurt to take one for a spin now. But if you like them with age, my guess is patience will be rewarded.

[JimHow]

Geez, Gerry, NH has a January 15% sale on mixed cases of ALL wines.....

[Gerry M.]

Something tells me business must be slipping from increased competition from MA lead by Total Wine and less aggressive pricing on their part. NH used to have that sale only a couple of times a year and now it seemed like it's every other month.

[Racer Chris]

I opened one of these yesterday and took to a wine dinner.
The "competition" was a bit stiff, with a '14 Maybach Materium and a '14 Macdonald Cabernet. Very different creatures from the other Bordeaux on the table: 2000 Peby Faugeres and 2000 Langoa Barton. The Calon-Segur sort of bridged the gap being so young but definitely classic Bordeaux character. In 10+ years I bet the C-S becomes every bit as pleasing as the Peby was.
One more red wine on the table was 2006 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova Brunello, which I found to be one of the most pleasing Brunellos I've had yet.
We started with an '83 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese, which was incredible. The Krug Grand Cuvee MV was opened a bit too far into the evening and I didn't take any time with it other than to have a few sips.
Everything was so good. The lowest I could possibly rate one of these wines would be at least 93-94 points.

[AKR]

Those are some heavy duty wines.

[Nicklasss]

My prediction for 2018: the BWE wine of the year will be a... 2015 wine from the aoc Margaux!

Nic

[JimHow]

Wow. What are your thoughts on Bitcoin?

[Racer Chris]

Those are some heavy duty wines.

The guy who organizes our offlines likes to drink big cabs.
As great as those two were, I preferred the Peby Faugeres.

[AKR]

Those are some heavy duty wines.

The guy who organizes our offlines likes to drink big cabs.
As great as those two were, I preferred the Peby Faugeres.

After buying the 98 and 99 Peby, I got shut out of the 00 by my vendor at the time.

It was a new bottling back then and my guy would allocate one bottle for each case of the basic St Em. wine purchased.

Almost never see any notes on Peby.

[Racer Chris]

This bottle of Peby was decanted at the table, was open for business right away, and only got better.
I was impressed, especially that the flavor profile seemed more like a left bank wine, yet it's all (or nearly all) Merlot.
It was still very fresh, plenty of dark red/black fruit, soft tannins, and no tertiary development in evidence.

[Racer Chris]

Friday night we took my father out to celebrate his 89th birthday: dinner at The Firebox and tickets to the Connecticut Forum at the Bushnell.
I had offered him several choices of wine that I could bring to the restaurant, and he selected the young third growth from St. Estephe.
Mary decanted the wine for me at 1pm, and at 4:30 I returned it to the bottle as we prepared to depart. There was just enough time to pick up dad and be in Hartford for our 5:30 reservation.
The Firebox is a farm to table restaurant in an historic brick building once occupied by a drop forge, located just a few blocks from the Bushnell. They employ their staff from within the neighborhood. This was our second time eating there, the first time having been the same circumstance a couple years ago.
I knew Mary would want one of their classy cocktails instead of wine, and dad would only have a glass or two, which meant most of the bottle was mine.
So I asked our server to pour some wine right away, before we had even decided on our food.
Sure enough, Mary took a sip and passed her glass to me almost right away, and when the server returned she ordered a fancy martini with a sprig of thyme floating in it.
My first impression of the wine was that it was warmer than I prefer at the beginning of a bottle - an unforeseen consequence of it being on my kitchen counter for several hours, without time for re-cooling before travel.
However the wine was open for business, displaying mostly black fruits, a hint of oak, strong but smooth tannins and a lengthy finish.
By the time my entrée of Ahi Tuna on a bed of quinoa/rice arrived the wine was in fine form.
I know dad enjoyed it because he took a second and a third pour. In spite of encouraging Mary to have another sip with her entrée, she chose a refill of her fancy drink.
I had no trouble polishing off the rest of the bottle as it was an excellent accompaniment to the food, which was prepared beautifully.

Our Bushnell tickets mentioned discounts at local restaurants, and sure enough we received 20% off the entrée prices. Corkage was $20 - reasonable enough.
We were out the door at 7:30, just enough time to drive 4 blocks in city traffic and park 2 blocks from the theatre entrance - in the theatre's overflow parking lot.
There was another show in the neighboring theatre and, as we learned the hard way, parking was at a premium. However, we managed to find our balcony seats before the lights went down.
The Forum was about the Current State of Journalism in America, moderated by local public radio host John Dankowsky. The guests were Hugh Hewitt, Joy Reid, and David Farenthold.
The discussion was entertaining and informative. After the intermission, as is the custom at CT Forum events, questions from the audience were discussed by the panel.
Right before the discussion ended, John announced that he had just read a tweet that Andrew McCabe had been fired, setting off a loud murmur from the audience.
That brought us firmly back to the reality of the moment, and was a somber cap to a very interesting conversation among 4 talented journalists.

I give the evening a 93. Would have been a 94 but for slight bitterness on the finish.

[JimHow]

Ha great report RC.
When my father was in his 70s the old textile mill worker who grew up in the Great Depression was initially skeptical about my high priced fancy French wines.
It didn't take long for him to acquire a taste for great Bordeaux, though, and it was one of the great joys of my life to be able to drink many bottles of fine Medoc with him during the last 20 years of his life before he passed away three years ago at 90.