Château Calon-Ségur is a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

in the Saint-Estèphe

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication used to identify where the ingredients of a food or beverage originated, most often used for the origin of wine grapes. Restrictions other than geographical boundaries, s ...

of the

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine (; ) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city, the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the broad estuary called the Gironde; the Gi ...

region of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The wine produced here was classified as one of fourteen ''Troisièmes Crus Classés'' (Third Growths) in the historic

Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the Exposition Universelle (1855), 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III of France, Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordea ...

.Karen MacNeil, ''The Wine Bible'', Workman Publishing, 2001, p.885, It is the northernmost classified growth in the Médoc.

History

"''Calon''", meaning a little river

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...

used in the Middle Ages to ferry timber across the

Gironde estuary The Gironde estuary ( , US usually ; , ; , ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Garonne just downstream of the centre of Bordeaux. Coverin ...

, gave the name to this district which was at one point known as Calones or Saint-Estèphe-de-Calon. In early times, Château Calon-Ségur was one of the original three vineyards in Saint-Estèphe and, in 1825, Château Montrose (in 1855 classified as a Second Growth) was a forest-land parcel belonging to the Calon-Ségur estate. By marriage, the estate came to be owned by Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Ségur who also owned Chateau Latour and Chateau Lafite. Despite his ownership of these two First Growths, the Marquis said that "I make wine at Lafite and Latour but my heart is at Calon Segur." The wine's label today includes a drawing of a heart around the Chateau's name.H. Johnson & J. Robinson, ''The World Atlas of Wine'', p.88, Mitchell Beazley Publishing, 2005, Kissack, Chris, thewinedoctor.co
Chateau Calon-Ségur
/ref> In the modern era, the estate has been owned by the Capbern Gasqueton family since 1894. After Mme Capbern-Gasqueton's death, it was sold in 2012 to Suravenir Assurances, an insurance company. Chinese winemaker Emma Gao trained at the chateau, where she met her future husband, winemaker Thierry Courtade.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calon-Segur, Chateau Bordeaux wine producers