Rauzan Ségla 2016

Tasted blind. Muddy crimson. Muddy nose. But some interesting fruit flavour here. And the tannins are not too tough. Though the finish is a bit green. I preferred the Ségla at this stage!Drink 2025 – 2038

The monumental 2016 Château Rauzan-Ségla is up with the crème de la creme in the vintage and is a brilliant, brilliant wine that readers should snatch up. Based on 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, all raised in 60% new French oak, it’s a powerful, full-bodied Margaux that has thrilling notes of crème de cassis, blueberries, spring flowers, new leather, and obvious minerality as well as a Château Margaux-like sandalwood and exotic floral quality. Deep, beautifully concentrated, and as seamless and elegant as it gets, it needs 4-5 years of bottle age (it’s brilliant even today) and will keep for 30+ years. Bravo! Drink 2023-2053.

Lush the nose has rich fruit the palate depth of flavour velvet smooth supple in the middle. The richness is underpinned by freshness layers of flavour lots of complexity the tannins fine and discreet. There are sweet black fruits at the back yet the finish is precise with great length. 2026-40

A wonderfully assured wine in 2016, this delivers the balance and complexity that we’ve grown to expect from Rauzan-Ségla. Grassy, elegant and hauntingly perfumed, with stylishly integrated oak, caressing tannins and scented red berry fruit. 2024-32

The 2016 Rauzan-Ségla has an intense bouquet, one of the most perfumed that I encountered during my round of tastings. Violets infuse the ebullient black fruit, and traces of pencil lead emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied, very pure and supple, displaying wonderful balance and a satiny texture that belongs in a lingerie shop. This is an utterly seductive Margaux, one of the finest in recent years as this estate continues its upsurge in quality. Few 2016s will dole out such inhibited pleasure. Drink 2022-2056.

The 2016 Rauzan-Segla (Rausan-Segla) is a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot picked between 20 September and 15 October at 45 hectoliters per hectare. The wine is being aged in 60% new oak for 18 months. It has 13.2% alcohol. It has a very powerful and intense bouquet with layers of blackberry, kirsch, cedar and a touch of mint. The palate is medium-bodied with plenty of fruit concentration: layers of ripe blackberry and boysenberry, segueing into what feels like a very spicy and peppery second half that seems to calm down and attain more nuance with aeration in the glass. It is a wonderful follow-up to the 2015 last year, although not quite with the same audacity and bravado. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Drink 2022-2050.

A solid red with currant and blackberry character. Full body, soft tannins and a flavorful finish. Shows richness and excitement. Juicy and sexy undertone to this.

The 2016 Rauzan-Ségla is blended of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot aged in 60% new and 40% one-year-old barrels for 18 months. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it sings of lifted red and black cherries, black raspberries and cassis with a rose hip tea and lilacs undercurrent plus sparks of tobacco, pencil shavings and tilled earth. The palate is medium-bodied, elegant and mineral laced with firm, fine-grained tannins and beautiful freshness, finishing with great length and depth. 2021 - 2046

A beautiful wine, juicy yet controlled, muscular tannic frame with a pillow of freshness underneath, crushed mint leaf, liqourice, black tea, dark chocolate, damson, cassis, spiced plum, full of pleasure with plenty to sink into. The 2016 vintage is one that you can confidently cellar for decades, but is already giving clear signals of its brilliance. 3/6ph, 45hl/h yield, 60% new oak, harvest September 20 to October 15. Nicolas Audbert director.

This is a Rauzan-Ségla with a powerful, streamlined throb. The two Rauzan neighbours (Ségla and Gassies) give very different takes on the vintage and each has its own charm. This is sleek, poised and well controlled, demonstrating deep extraction with clear cassis notes. Nicolas Audbert takes more risks with the wine than his predecessor John Kolasa did, and the opulence, finesse and forward motion is clear. Big-framed for the vintage, this resembles the 2015, even the 2010, and is a wine for long ageing.Drinking Window 2027 - 2050

Luminous crimson. Nicely integrated nose. Very juicy and sappy. You really want to drink this even though it is clearly not pushed to any limit. Nicely judged. Proper satiny Margaux. Bravo.Drink 2025-2045

Really lifted, savoury nose. Well mannered. Nothing out of step. Could do with a bit more acidity and drive? A bit too diplomatic on the palate?Drink 2025-2045