1995 Ch Calon Segur

The wifey and I shared a bottle of 1995 Ch Calon Segur at the restaurant Ember (at the 1929 Hotel) where the food is really quite excellent and reasonably priced (mains below SGD40), and the service prompt, friendly and highly efficient without any pretension, attracting a wine-savvy crowd who’d brought their own bottles, taking advantage of the relatively cheap corkage of only SGD20.  Popped and poured from bottle, the wine showed a deep garnet red with a violet rim, producing a lifted bouquet of blackberries, lovely ripe fruit, cassis and the classic minerality derived from the clay soils of St Estephe that defies accurate description (a trace of chalky firmness in the background), combining into a wine that probably would have been quite hedonistic in its youth. Very harmonious right from the start, soft, yet imbued with the right degree of intensity. It mellowed quite rapidly in the glass, its core opening up to reveal greater depth and transparency. Beautifully integrated, transforming further after 60 minutes, gaining weight and concentration, the fruit being more focused, the wine more complex, developing some velvety tannins as it glides into a savoury, persistent finish. Seemed more youthful and weightier than a bottle drank in Aug 2009 (see blog entry “Ward 48 dinner at Jade Palace”). At its peak now, and will probably still hold for many more years to come. Excellent.