1988 Château Rauzan-Ségla
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Tasting notes
The 1988 Rauzan-Ségla is a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot, which apparently suffered a little coulure that year. Readers should note that it was tasted from a freshly poured bottle and one that had been decanted for one hour, simply for comparison purposes. Now this has a flipping gorgeous bouquet with precocious fruit for a 1988, mulberry and touches of peppermint verging on eucalyptus. The palate perhaps has not quite kept up the nose, yet it remains fresh and “solid” with firm tannin, truffle tinged black fruit intermingling with cedar and undergrowth. This is certainly the best of three or four bottles that I have tried over the years and having tasted several other vintages from this era, one of the best of the decade. Tasted at the château.
Critic scores
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
A very strong, powerful wine with an opaque ruby/purple color and a tight but promising bouquet of black currants intermixed with iron, smoke, licorice, and dried herbs, this muscular, very masculine, brawny wine seems built for the long haul. Will it ever shed all of its tannin? Anticipated maturity: 2004-2018. Last tasted, 3/02.
Raspberry and dark chocolate on the nose. Full-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and mint, berry and raspberry flavors. A little tight right now. Decant an hour or two before serving. Improving with age still.¿'88/'98 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2008). Drink now. 16,000 cases made. James Suckling, Wine Spectator 2009
The 1988 Rausan-Segla is black/ruby in color, intensely concentrated, full-bodied, and tannic, with an admirable purity of fruit (black-raspberries). A backward, large-scaled wine, it is impressively built for the long haul. Anticipated maturity: 1997-2012. Feb 1993, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
The Chanel group purchased Margaux Second Growth Ch. Rauzan-Ségla in 1994. Under the iconic fashion house’s ownership and – since 2014 – the guidance of winemaker Nicolas Audebert, the estate has seen significant investment and rapidly become one of Bordeaux’s most desirable.