Best Château Rauzan-Ségla wines: 25 vintages reviewed

Château Rauzan-Ségla produced one of my favourite Margaux wines in the 2018 vintage, standing out for its concentration, confidence and elegance, easily one of the wines of the year in the appellation.

Setting it within the context of this vertical of wines back to 1994 was fascinating, showing how 2018 reached the heights of the very best vintages of the property, and is likely to age exceptionally well.These 25 years of 1994 to 2018 cover every harvest dating from the purchase of Rauzan-Ségla by the Wertheimer brothers of Chanel.They bought the Margaux second growth from the British shipping company John Holt, famously settling for its vast potential (at the time often hidden after a series of uninspiring vintages) as a consolation prize after missing out on the purchase of Château Latour.At the same time, they secured the services of John Kolasa, who had previously been working at the Pauillac first Growth and was persuaded to follow the would-be purchasers over to Margaux.

On arrival, the Wertheimers made two immediate decisions that no doubt reflect their grasp of branding learnt over three generations of luxury goods marketing; it was their grandfather Pierre who first bought the makeup company Bourgois and then made the initial agreement with Coco Chanel in 1924 to market the perfume Chanel No 5, an agreement which eventually led to their taking over the company.

The first of these decisions was to change the spelling of the main wine from Rausan-Ségla, as it had been since the 19th century, back to the original Rauzan-Ségla.

The second was to change the name of the second wine to the simple and striking Ségla, to ensure that the link between the two was clearly underlined.

Kolasa was given free rein to make all decisions for the estate, and the next few years saw a full renovation of the château, barrel cellar and winery, with the replacement of the rows of 225-litre cement tanks with a variety of smaller sized vats from 40 to 225 hectolitres, that better reflected the plots in the vineyard.

Machine-harvesting was stopped as of 1994 and drainage channels were introduced throughout the vineyard – something that was happening in several Margaux properties at the time.

Kolasa also began a vineyard replanting programme that is still ongoing, upping the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon and lowering the Merlot that had become overly dominant in the 1980s.

The vineyard has grown from 52ha in 2003 to 74ha today, with the most interesting new terroir coming from a plot called Boston, with extremely deep gravel soils that are perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes from Boston should be integrated into the first wine as of 2020 but for now are still in Ségla.

Nicolas Audebert succeeded Kolasa as director in 2015 and has taken the estate another step up in consistency and quality.

The early years under Chanel clearly reflected the fact that investments in wine take time and patience to come through in the glass. In this tasting, I would exclude the 1996 from this analysis; the vintage really stood out for me as tasting exceptional today but was certainly tannic and unloving in its early years.

I didn’t really find consistency in the wines until we reached the 2000 vintage, so six years after the Chanel investments began.

Another step up clearly arrives with the 2009, and there is little doubt that today this is one of the go-to wines in Margaux, with plenty more to give.

Rauzan-Ségla fact file

1855 second growth

70HA, with 45% 1st wine, 55% 2nd wine Ségla in most vintages.

Grape mix in vineyard: 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot, planted at 6,600- 10,000vines/ha.

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Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

Roederer awards 2016: International Feature Writer of the Year

Anson: Tasting every Château Rauzan-Ségla vintage from 1994 to 2018

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1994

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1995

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1996

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1997

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1998

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 1999

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2000

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2001

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2002

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2003

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2004

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2005

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2006

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2007

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2008

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2009

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2010

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2011

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2012

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2013

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2014

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2015

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2016

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2017

Château Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux, 2ème Cru Classé, Bordeaux, France, 2018