Ch. Rauzan-Segla
Segla
Margaux
2016

The producer

There has been significant investment in Rauzan-Segla since it was purchased by the Wertheimer family (owners of Chanel) in 1994. The lovely chateau has been renovated, the cellars given a major makeover, and the vineyards expanded and restructured. Today the majority of the 74 ha of vineyards, which have been farmed organically since 2018, are located in the Cantenac plateau with a small parcel in the Margaux commune.

The Grand Vin is usually made up of over 60% of Cabernet Sauvignon, with around a third Merlot and a drop of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. They are sexy, dark-hearted Margaux wines with serious finesse and fine structure.

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson ordered ten cases of Rauzan-Segla following a trip to the Bordeaux region, declaring afterwards that “Rauzan Segla was truly at the top of the second growths” -  we agree that this is certainly again the case today.

The wine

Château Rauzan-Ségla’s Ségla is the estate’s second wine, made from the same Margaux terroir as the Grand Vin but from younger vines and lots selected for earlier approachability. The blend is typically Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot-led (often with a small proportion of Petit Verdot and/or Cabernet Franc depending on the year), and the winemaking follows the château’s meticulous approach: gentle extraction, temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel, then élevage in French oak barriques (with a lower proportion of new oak than the Grand Vin) to preserve freshness and fruit purity.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.