Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar: 89 points

(64% cabernet sauvignon, 33% merlot and 3% petit verdot) Red-ruby. Perfumed, highly complex nose offers black cherry, currant, iron, mocha, smoked meat, flowers and a whiff of bonfire. Rich, sweet and densely packed, with lovely delineation and inner-mouth aromatic character. The cool August shows in the wine's slight medicinal austerity, but this is juicy, pure and vibrant, and the tannins are quite fine. May not show the grip or length of a great year but this is an outperformer for this appellation in 2006. The estate did a gentle extraction, with a maceration limited to 18 days, in search of silky tannins, according to Madame Gasqueton.

Review date: May 2007

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 93 points

Tasted at Bordeaux Index's tasting and at the château, the 2006 Calon Segur was current winemaker Vincent Millet's first vintage. In many ways, you can see it as one of the last of the "old style" Calon Segur wines with a higher percentage of Merlot than nowadays (the 2006 consists of 33% Merlot), while I aver that the tannins are not as fine as they are nowadays. The Merlot component is vividly expressed on the nose with ravishing ripe red cherries, kirsch and strawberry, just slightly smudged by the alcohol. The palate is medium-bodied with chewy tannin, quite sexy in style but it does not have the class of more recent vintages and it seems to have remained tough up on the finish. It will loosen up with time, so afford this another 6-8 years in bottle. Tasted January 2016.

Review date: May 2016