Tasting Phélan Ségur: A gem in St-Estèphe

When Belgian shipping magnate Philippe Van de Vyvere arrived at Phélan Ségur in late 2017, he joined an appellation that has seen not only 20% of its estates change hands over the past decade, but one that has an unusually high number of Belgian owners.

There’s Baron Velge at Château Côme, Chris Cardon at La Haye, Gaëtan Lagneaux at Petit Bocq and now Van de Vyvere; not bad considering St-Estèphe has just 58 independent winemakers.

Beyond the appellation, they of course join other Belgian owners in Bordeaux, from the Thienpont family at Le Pin and Vieux Château Certan in Pomerol to the Bonnies at Malartic-Lagravière in Pessac-Léognan.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s tasting notes and scores for Phélan Ségur wines

Van de Vyvere, who was born in 1953, was best known as a wealthy shipping magnate before his arrival in Bordeaux.

The Figaro newspaper lists him as a director of vast shipping conglomerate Ets Maritime de Caronte et de Fos, but he is understood to be involved with other related companies. These include Sea-Invest and Sea-Rail, according to Bloomberg.

This is his first wine investment, but one that clearly could be a game-changer for Phélan Ségur, which had been owned for the previous 30 years by the Gardinier family.

Factfile: Phélan Ségur

Owner: Philippe Van de Vyvere

General Director: Véronique Dausse

Vineyard Manager: Luc Peyronnet

Wine Cellar Master: Fabrice Bacquey

Consultants: Michel Rolland, Julien Viaud

Vineyard: 70 hectares (ha)

Average age of the vineyard: 35 years

Density of plantation: 10,000 vines per ha

Grape varieties: 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 1.5% Petit Verdot, 1.5% Cabernet Franc

Phélan was the highest profile St-Estèphe estate to change hands since Calon Ségur in 2012.

It grew in stature under the Gardiniers to become one of the most celebrated in estates in the appellation, despite shrinking from 90ha at its height to 70ha by selling land to Montrose in 2010.

The Gardinier brothers, Stéphane, Thierry and Laurent, live in Paris. From here, they run a highly successful gourmet empire comprising Les Crayères in Champagne, Le Taillevent restaurants in Paris and London, and – since 2018 – the iconic restaurant Drouant, as well as a new caviar business named Comptoir de Caviar.

They brought glamour and international renown to Phélan, but hospitality is a notoriously money-hungry business, as are wine estates, and the new ownership structure gives more breathing room to Phélan.

Fresh investment

Van de Vyvere has already begun to invest by replanting 3ha of vines in 2019.

Further plans for another 3ha of new vines in 2020 have had to be slightly altered due to COVID19 and are now down to 2ha.

A project is also underway to plant a significant number of trees and plants under the supervision of English landscape gardener Tom Stuart Smith over the next three years.

A large area directly in front of the Château will be given over to indigenous perennial plants, alongside a pond to encourage wildlife. In 2021, cows will be reintroduced to the land alongside the Gironde Estuary.

There are also experiments in organic viticulture, with 4.5ha of vine already converted, although there are no plans to be formally certified.

Phélan Ségur was already a precursor in green farming, with no pesticides used since 1998. There had been a bumpy start to the Gardinier ownership, however; the entire 1983 vintage was recalled from the market the family refused to sell the next two vintages.

The Gardiniers cited an insecticide ‘Orthene 50’ made by Chevron Chemical Co that they felt had contaminated the water supply and made the harvest from 1984 and 1985 ‘undrinkable and unmarketable’. It turned into a US$57 million law suit that the family eventually won, establishing themselves as risk takers when it came to ensuring quality.

The new owner clearly plans to build on their work, although no doubt he hopes to do so through less dramatic methods.

The Phélan vineyard

The focus today is less on chemical usage and more on future-proofing the vineyard – a question being raised across the region right now.

Recent developments have included planting a small amount of Carménère and Malbec on certain plots of gravel to see if they better withstand the very hot summers that have been seen recently, and which can cause issues even with Cabernet Sauvignon.

In the same vein, back in 2013, plots of Petit Verdot were also introduced and Cabernet Franc plantings were increased slightly.

The vineyard of Phélan is laid out across four main sections, largely clay-gravel although with some areas of sandy-gravel that can be more challenging in hot dry summers like 2018 and 2019, and may benefit from these different varieties.

Renovation for Phélan’s cellar

In the cellar, optical sorting has been in place since 2011, and there are plans over the next few years to fully renovate the cellar and winery. Specifically, the teams wants to improve its environmental impact through water recycling and the capture of CO2, similar to techniques used at both Montrose and Smith-Haut-Lafitte.

And the château building itself will see a few renovations, too, under the guidance of Belgian architect Axel Vervoordt.

The dining room will be renamed ‘the Irish room’ in a nod to Bernard Phélan, another foreign owner who was here in the 19th century. He built the château and gave the estate half of its name.

This vertical tasting, spanning a decade of wines, showed an estate that is at the top of its game.

For me easily, Phélan Ségur is the St-Estèphe estate that would most likely be classified if the 1855 ranking was ever redone, which it won’t be. Most importantly, this estate offers wines that are consistent across vintages with a clear personality.

See Jane Anson’s Phélan Ségur tasting notes and scores

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