Rauzan Ségla 2015

Tasted blind. Savoury, fresh with Oxo meat-extract notes. Rather hard on the end but probably trying not to be too sweet. Lovely texture and freshness. Leathery texture on the end. Just slightly sickly.Drink 2024-2044

I loved the 2015 Rauzan-Segla and it’s another sensational Margaux and is another data point showing Margaux was the most successful appellation in the Médoc. Deep purple/ruby-hued with an elegant perfume of currants, raspberries, dried flowers, and toasted spices, with ample background oak, this full-bodied, incredibly elegance, pure Margaux has sweet tannin, impressive mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It has awesome purity of fruit and promises to evolve for 30+ years. 2018 - 2048

Sweet and ripe on the nose depth of flavour the palate has a rich mix of cassis and black cherry all backed by dark chocolate. Mid suppleness fleshy and velvety yet there is balance with fresh fruit at the back purity a mineral edge the finish sweet with rich fruit.

A delicious wine from this good value château, which has touched new peaks in recent vintages. Scented, balanced and very pure, with plum and cassis fruit, stylish oak and the tannic structure to age further in bottle. One of the wines of the appellation. Drink: 2022-32

Powerful, structured and with considerable power and weight this is quite an arresting wine and it needs time to work itself out. Rather closed and oaky and also too introspective to shake any sense out of it in the glass this wine is a conundrum, but given recent successes I can imagine it unravelling on cue and softening nicely hence my seemingly generous score.

The 2015 Rauzan-Segla (Rausan-Segla) was a magnificent wine out of barrel, but what matters, of course, is how you and I find this Margaux in bottle. Well, it has a disarmingly beautiful, almost haunting bouquet with pure black fruit laced with cedar, orange blossom and violet aromas that blossom in the glass. I cannot recollect a Rauzan-Segla as delineated as this. The palate is medium-bodied but with ripe, quite bold tannin that lends this wine much more volume than in previous vintages. This just fills the mouth and satiates the senses. There is a fine line of acidity here and tints of black truffle. There is a wondrous mineral tension on the finish and yet this is a Margaux that is determined and succeeds in satiating all the senses...apart from sound. So put your favorite musician on and savor this exceptional wine over the coming years. A benchmark. Anticipated maturity: 2021 - 2060.

The 2015 Rauzan-Ségla, picked September 10 to October 9, has a lucid deep colour. No great surprise that this performed exactly as it did a few weeks earlier. The bouquet bursts from the glass with fragrant red berry fruit, crushed violets and iris, almost penetrating in its intensity. You can feel the energy coiled up inside this nascent Margaux. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. This has such a backbone and structure, layers of sappy black fruit suffused with crushed stone, a seam of graphite that lends it a Pauillac-like allure. It feels very long and intense, a Rauzan-Ségla destined to last decades rather than years. Tasted at the Rauzan-Ségla vertical at the château.

The 2015 Rauzan-Segla is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc cropped at 40 hl/ha between 10 September with the young Merlot vines and finishing with the Cabernet Sauvignon, which was picked between 22 September and 9 October. It is matured in 65% new oak for around 18 months. It has a very intense, almost crystalline bouquet with blackberry, briary, flint and just a touch of violet petal. There is incredible delineation here and the new wood is seamlessly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with extremely fine tannin, perfectly judged acidity, otherworldly purity and a mineralité rarely seen in this Margaux estate. This is a brilliant Rauzan-Ségla, not necessarily more powerful than previous vintages, though enhanced by its precision, frisson and energy, perhaps longer on the finish. Winemaker Nicolas Audebert has conspired with the benevolent growing season to produce a benchmark wine for the estate. Drink 2027-2060.

This is so sexy with superbly polished tannins that gives the wine super length and definition. Compacted and tight. Full body, tight yet flamboyant at the same time. Loving it.

The 2015 Rauzan-Segla (Rausan-Segla) is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc and was matured in 65% new and 35% one-year-old barrels for 18 months. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it gives up a myriad of softly spoken fresh berry, floral and fragrant earth notes, including crushed red and black currants, black raspberries and menthol notes with touches of cigar box, lavender, violets, smoked meats, black truffles and chargrill. Medium to full-bodied with a firm frame of very finely grained tannins and seamless freshness, the palate possesses an arresting quiet intensity of many tightly wound, subtle layers, finishing on a lingering mineral note. Very polished and precise, this Rauzan-Ségla is truly a triumph! 2024 - 2047

Packed full of blackberry, redcurrant, creme de cassis, chocolate shavings, slate, tar, supple yet muscular texture to the tannins, this tugs you back in, taking its time as it slowly unrolls. Great stuff, still a little subdued aromatically but has the texture and the grip to ensure decades of life. 65% new oak, 40hl/h yield, harvest September 10 to October 9. First year with Nicolas Audebert as director, taking over from John Kolasa. Drink 2025-2046.

Bright lustrous crimson. Very carefully made with real vitality. Fresh and much more lifted than most. Long with a wonderful undertow. Already quite complex. No rough edges.Drink 2023-2040

Very dark. This is turbo Margaux! By which I don’t mean that it's forced but it has extraordinary concentration and impact. Very much set for the long term. Juicy and chock full of fruit that almost disguises the tannin. Amazing persistence.