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.

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!

The 2016 Rauzan-Segla has a deep garnet color. Black cherry compote, baked blackberries, and freshly crushed blackcurrants all jump from the glass, followed by hints of rose oil, cardamom, and cedar chest, plus a waft of spice box. Medium-bodied, the palate is super-intense, featuring tight-knit black fruits and floral layers, framed by fine-grained tannins and bold freshness, finishing with impressive length.

Structured and elegant, this starts slowly, and is clearly still young at this point, with firm tannins giving a slow-release to the blackberry and cassis fruits, laced with mint, black tea, cumin and liqourice. Getting even better as it ages, this has decades ahead of it. This first wine comes almost entirely from plots on Terrace 4, a wide, clay-rich strip of gravel. 3/6ph, 45hl/h yield, 60% new oak, harvest September 20 to October 15. Nicolas Audbert director.

Depth of flavor, complexity, energy and concentration are easy to see. And so is the gorgeous, floral, red berry, licorice, earth and gentle smoke tones. Silky, sweet and fresh, this is going to need 12-15 years before it really starts opening. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-tasting-note/?vintage=2016&wine=Chateau%20Rauzan-Segla

97+ 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 Perrotti-Brown

Dark tannins work with the sophisticated structure of this wine. The very fine tannins are an important element of the wine, giving shape to the ripe black fruits and acidity. This wine, rich and structured, is set for a long development. Drink from 2026.

Right from the first nose it's clear just how good this 2016 is. This feels extremely Margaux in character, and extremely Rauzan Ségla. It's a great year for Rauzan because it plays to the strengths of the estate. Full of effortless elegance, its juicy, beautifully balanced black fruits are set off by coffee, cigar box, liquorice root and flint. It has smoke and lift on the finish. Harvested between 20 September and 15 October, this was a really late harvest. The yield was 45hl/ha, so a little higher than in 2018, which comes through in the wine as a sense of effortless appeal. Read more at https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/france/bordeaux/chateau-rauzan-segla-margaux-2eme-cru-classe-2016-10995#Ssq78P7kdk4fqgfj.99

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. — JM