Saint-Estèphe · vintage 2020
Why this vintage
- 96/100 from James Sucklingand 6 other scores above 90/100.
- The 2020 vintage in Saint-EstèpheAn early, hot year, with a harvest under pressure: a dense, juicy classic, ripe without heaviness.
Critic scores
- James Suckling96
- Vinous96
- Jeb Dunnuck95
- Decanter94
- Wine Enthusiast94
- Wine Advocate93
- Wine Spectator93
The 2020 vintage in Saint-Estèphe
Vintage benchmark: 94/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: An early, hot year, with a harvest under pressure: a dense, juicy classic, ripe without heaviness.
Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Estèphe. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.
Tasting
2020 is the first vintage of Château Phélan Ségur, composed of four grape varieties with the arrival of our Petit verdot planted in 2013. Its expressive and remarkably fresh nose is an invitation to immerse yourself in a multicolored and “polyphonic” universe of fruits and flowers. It is all in balance with a precise and chiseled structure. Subtly fleshy, it is dense and its tannins are finely woven. Its power and its length allow it to deploy radiant energy and to be a source of astonishing emotion.
Blend of the 2020 vintage
- 54 % Cabernet-sauvignon
- 42 % Merlot
- 2 % Cabernet franc
- 2 % Petit verdot
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2020 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 58 % cabernet sauvignon, 39 % merlot, 1.5 % cabernet franc, 1.5 % petit verdot — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2020 sheet
- 35 yrsVine age
- 200,000 bottlesProduction
Winemaking
Fermentation and vatting constitute the two main phases of winemaking. Quickly, the marc formed from the solids of the grapes (mainly the skins and seeds) occupies the upper third of the vat. It is essential to promote contact between these two elements during alcoholic fermentation.
Ageing
16 months in oak barrels (50% new oak).
Terroir
The terroir of Phélan Ségur, in the eastern part of the commune of Saint-Estèphe bordering the estuary, is made up of gravelly alluvium deposited when the Garonne was a torrential river 650,000 years ago. It consists of pebbles and above all of gravel coated in clayey sands. The varying thickness of these deposits is readily apparent, since it is what determines the rolling landscape of much of the Saint-Estèphe area. The alluvial layers rest on a marine formation of limestone dating from the period when the tip of the Médoc, close to the ocean, lay beneath the sea.
An offer on Château Phélan Ségur 2020
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2020
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
For this vintage, the media library contains: packshots, labels. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 21, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.