Rauzan Segla 2016 (375ML)

98+ JD / 98 JS / 97+ VM / 97+ WA / 95 DE / 95 WS 

#61 Jeb Dunnuck’s Top 100 Wines of 2019

#90 James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of 2019

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! - Jeb Dunnuck

The aromas of blackcurrants, sweet tobacco and sandalwood are tantalizing. Then it turns to subtle, dried fruit. Full-bodied with dense and powerful tannins, yet ending with finesse and vertical nature. Very deep. Power with finesse. Try after 2025. - James Suckling

The 2016 Rauzan-Ségla is simply stunning. Ample and generous in the glass, the 2016 is a positively stellar wine that will leave readers weak at the knees. The flavors and textures are generous as this sublime Margaux shows off its alluring personality. Sweet red cherry, plum, pomegranate, blood orange, spice and rose petal are some of the many notes that run through this absolutely exquisite wine. The 2016 is just as impressive from bottle as it was from barrel, maybe even more! Tasted three times. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

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. - Lisa Perotti-Brown, Wine Advocate

There's an array of flavours and complex aromatics on offer here. It's powerful and brooding, with a lyrical acidity that helps to lift up the relatively foursquare tannins on the attack. After a few minutes in the glass it begins to ripple with menthol, liquorice root, grilled cedar and sweet spices. It needs time to settle, of course, but is extremely classic, and will go the distance and then some. Matured in 60% new oak. - Jane Anson, Decanter

This has a lovely core of creamy anise-infused plum, blackberry and boysenberry flavors that showcase themselves a bit more vividly than many Margaux peers in this vintage do, with substantial but velvety grip and lots of extra violet, graphite and black tea notes adding to the long flow of a finish. Really beautiful feel. Best from 2023 through 2038. 10,000 cases made. - James Molesworth, Wine Spectator