France

Ch. Belregard-Figeac

Chateau Figeac Premier Grand Cru Classe B Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Bordeaux

Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Vivid plum and ruby colour, clear ripe raspberry and damson fruits, sappy quality, fine tannins. The Cabernet Franc slowly unfurls its floral waves, violets and iris, with white flowers, savoury black fruits, good energy and length. Figeac has shown over and over again that it can deliver wines that succeed and delight in many different kinds of vintage conditions, and it is an estate to have confidence in. 31hl/ha yield, 100% new oak, 8% press, 3.66pH. 31hl/ha yield. They deleafed on both sides for the first time since technical director Romain Jean-Pierre arrived 13 years ago. Harvest September 20 to October 5. 

Inside Bordeaux

A blend of 41% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2023 Figeac has a pH of 3.68 and it is deep garnet-purple in color. It prances out of the glass with out-going scents of black raspberries and fresh blackcurrants, opening out to reveal an undercurrent of pencil shavings, rose bud tea, iron ore, and wood smoke. The medium-bodied palate delivers a rock-solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and beautiful tension supporting the taut, muscular black fruits, finishing with a long-lingering mineral firework display.

by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

Vibrant damson in colour, edges of gunsmoke and red rose petals on the aromatics, as you so often find in Figeac, with dense cassis, black cherry, incense, graphite, slate, mint leaf, cocoa bean, cappucino and liquorice on the palate. This is creamy but airy, and full of joy. Close to the 2016 vintage in its construction and effortless confidence, no question of the ageing ability of this wine, and a fine vintage to mark the first year as Premier Grand Cru Classé A. Breaking down how they got here, you find inevitably careful winemaking with no pumping over, cool 26C for fermentation, making use of techniques learnt in the hot, dry summer of 2018, from cover crops to minimum green harvesting. Blend finished including 8% press in March, 3.7ph, harvest began September 1, earliest on record, until 26, second vintage in new winery. Frederic Faye director.

These guys have always known how to keep a steady hand on the extraction, and that skill comes in to play in 2021. This is such a gorgeous Cabernet Franc-led expression of the vintage, with its iris and violet notes, crushed brambled fruits and high smoke aromatic. Subtle but savoury, mouthwatering, gentle complexity, they have leaned in and leaned back with the challenges of the vintage. Delicious quality, for earlier drinking with a ton of pleasure. One of my wines of the vintage En Prmeur, and remains so. The last vintage before promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classé A. No fining, and extremely light filtration. 100% new oak. Romain Jean-Pierre technical director. 38hl/h yield, harvest September 21 to October 19. First vintage with the new cellar.

A blend of 37% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2020 Figeac has a deep garnet-purple color. It is completely shut-down and silent to begin, requiring a vigorous shake to release nuances of boysenberries, Morello cherries, fresh, crunchy plums, and sassafras, followed by an emerging waft of plum preserves, licorice, chargrill, and violets. The medium-bodied palate is so, so tightly knit, delivering a millefeuille of black and red berries, minerals, earth, and floral notes, with electric tension and very fine-grained, exquisitely ripe tannins, finishing long, long, long. Atomic!

The 2019 Figeac is a blend of 36% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 30% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it is a little sluggish and broody to begin, soon revealing glimpses at baked plums, blackberry pie, and chargrill scents, followed by hints of aniseed, unsmoked cigars, and dusty soil. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in elegance and restraint, featuring loads of mineral-sparked black fruit layers and a velvety texture, finishing long and earthy. Don't even think about touching this for a good 5-7 years (at least), when the experince promises to mind-blowing.

En duft av bjørnebær, mørke og røde plommer, blåbær, lys cola, en veldig krydret fremtreden og hvit sjokolade. En lukt av kvalitet og konsentrasjon. 

En smak av mørke bjørnebær, plommer, lakris, tobakk, urter og krydder. Alkoholen er utrolig godt integrert. Konsentrasjonen er ut av en egen verden, med tanniner som er unge og tett, men samtidig ekstremt tilgjengelige. 

Expert

A frost year giving an atypical blend with extremely low Cabernget Franc. Heavy smoke aromatics on the opening beats, with firm tannins at this point, concentrated keeping everything in line. Holds its core and it opens in waves of cassis, bilberry, campfire, rose stem and tobacco leaf. Mouthwatering slate finish. Harvest September 7 to October 3, 100% new oak for ageing.

Damson in colour and aromatics, this is reserved but not subdued at 6 years old, not yet ready to be drunk but showcasing already the ripe texture and layers of powerful blackcurrant pastille, blackberry and bilberry fruits. The minerality and salinity is striking also with touches of mandarin peel, cigar box, espresso, lemongrass even - pulses of fresher acidity that give poise and lift. Clearly exceptional, muscled and concentrated. 100% new oak.

Sweet ripe berry fruits on the nose, depth of flavour, precision and clarity that last from the first to the last moment of this wine. Clear cocoa bean, espresso, chocolate, but also concentrated bilberry, blackberry and raspberry. The tannins are slate-strewn, textured, adding persistency and mouthwatering salinity to the palate. This is a brilliant Figeac, and ones that lovers of this wine should absolutely not miss. Harvest September 21 to October 15, 100% new oak for ageing.

Quite different in feel to most of the St Emilions in this lineup, lovely balance, focus on cassis and juicy dark fruits, with liqourice and slate. Feels ripe without losing any of the integrity of the fruit character, poised and at a brilliant moment to start enjoying, juicy finish and plenty of length. 33hl/hyield, 100% new oak for aging. Harvest September 9 to October 12. Last tasted two years ago, and this has really opened up.

The 2013 Figeac has a medium garnet color, with a touch of brick. It delivers scents of dried black cherries, fruitcake, and star anise, leading to suggestions of iron ore and leather. The medium-bodied palate offers sparks of the remaining fruit, with well-managed, soft tannins and a lifted finish.

Far more open than the 2011, with generous blackberry puree and peony floral notes. A little less effortless finesse and balance than years like 2005 or 2010, but this has juice and character, and is a highly successful Figeac. As it opens, you see that the tannins retain some austerity and resistance in them at this point. First year where the blend begins to change, become more reactive to the indiividual vintage - and first year where Frederic Faye took over as director. Michel Rolland arrived as consultant in March 2013, so part of the blending team (and there was also an optical sorting machine for the first time). 100% new oak for ageing, 40hl/h yield, harvest September 20 to October 13.

Majors on tobacco and savoury grilled black fruits. This is a little austere, lacks the generosity of the two preceeding vintages, offers sculpted fruits and tannins, a plentiful dash of black pepper and crushed rocks, touches of graphite, but not really revving up through the palate. Harvest September 6 to 27, 100% new oak for ageing, 38hl/h yield.

More weight through the palate than the 2009, with reserved but muscular and chalky tannins, this is concentrated, majoring on black fruits, earning its reputation as a Left Bank-styled St Emilion. Beautiful curls of gunsmoke and violet flowers emerge as it opens, with fennel, black truffle and crayon. Give it a little longer in the bottle. Harvest September 27 to October 18, yield 33hl/h 100% new oak for ageing.

🇬🇧Powerful yet elegant Saint-Émilion with polished, velvety tannins and good structure. Already approachable and showing off well but with a huge ageing potential ahead, definitely not yet at its peak. At this stage, both on the nose and the palate, the wine is showing mainly primary aroma of both red and black fruits with a hint of eucalyptus, nearly balsamic and the oak is already well integrated. Classic and modern at the same time, this wine shows both the style of the producer and the vintage.
🇮🇹Intenso ma elegante allo stesso tempo, tannini ben integrati e una buona struttura. Già approciabile ma decisamente con un gran potenziale di invecchiamento nel tempo,  il vino non ha ancora raggiunto il suo apogeo. Al momento, sia in bocca che al naso, si percepiscono principalmente sentori di frutta rossa e nera con una nota di eucalipto, un tocco di balsamico ed il legno ben integrato. Classico e moderno, il vino rispecchia lo stile del produttore e le caratteristiche dell'annata.

Sommelier

I'm a huge fan of this slightly old school vintage, with its fennel and aniseed nose, along with concentrated raspberry and cranberry fruits. Clear smoke notes as it unravels, and some firm tannins that retain a touch of austerity even at 13 years old. A late harvest year after a cool summer and sunshine-filled September, running from October 1 to 20, giving a yield of 29hl/h yield. 100% new oak for ageing.

Tobacco and soft brambled fruit on the nose, this is delicate and enticing, at a sweet spot for drinking. Expect touches of white truffle, campfire smoke, saffron strands, black pepper, blackberry and raspberry puree, and fresher pulses of cranberry and white pepper. 33hl/h yield, 100% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 24 to October 2.

Dark ruby in colour, this is a Figeac that captures the 'Left Bank' spirit that you often find in this wine. It majors on Cabernet Sauvinon-led tobacco leaf, cassis and blueberry fruits, with touches of salted caramel on the finish. Good juice on the finish, plenty of structure to the tannins still. 100% new oak for ageing. Harvest September 15 to October 3. 37hl/h yield.

Ruby red. Floral and exotic nose with violets, spice, cassis, blueberries and light leather. Fresh acidity. Playful and refreshing. Elegant. Licorice, spice, ripe cherries, blueberries, cassis, pencil shavings and leather. Structured with polished sweet tannins. Very long.

Château Figeac uses about one third of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Most right bank Châteaus in Bordeaux are dominated by Merlot. But in Figeac the Merlot is balanced by the Cab Sauvignon and Franc. Classified as Grand Cru Classé B, and really being one of the very best right bank estates.

I have had the pleasure of visiting Figeac on seneral occasions and love the property and wines (second wine called Petit-Figeac).

Dense ruby in colour, slight bricking around the edges. Beautifully supple tannins, hints of black truffle, cocoa dusting. Signature Figeac finesse. Bright and vivid, feels like the slow-moving 2000 is now beginning to rival the legendary 2001 Figeac, and reaching that point where you can't decide if you want to slow down and savour every sip or rev up and drink it down in a few gulps. From double magnum. 100% new oak.

These days, tasting the legendary 1982 Bordeaux vintage is more rare from the Right Bank than the Left Bank, as smaller productions has meant there are less of them to go around. This is a real stand out, still delivering spice, tobacco, brambled raspberry and loganberry fruit, tertiary undergrowth and melted tannins. I amost picked the 2015 Figeac, one of my six 100 point wines given this year, but the 1982 stays in my memory as one of the most pleasurable moments of the past 12 months. And great to see in the year that Figeac was promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé A.

Enticing waves of forest floor, campfire, saffran, tobacco, grilled mushroom and leather, with beautiful melted tannins cradling softened loganberry fruits, this is built for sharing. Seamless, full of estate signature, astonishing really to find the Figeac character imprinted so strongly over this many decades. At the time Thierry Manoncourt was unhappy with the vintage, concerned that it hadn't fully finished its malolactic (there was no temperature control in the cellar), and so didn't release it. What that means today is that there is quite a bit of it left at the château, recorked in 2017 and topped up with the same vintage. Tasted ex-château, just brought out from the cellars where it has been held ever since bottling.

From Madame Manoncourt's private cellar, a wine that was bottled almost a decade before the first St Emilion classification was put in place, and a year before Thierry and Marie-France de Manoncourt met. It's full of soft echoes of tobacco, undergrowth, ash, soot, saffron and fragrant raspberry leaf. Soft, smooth and earthy. Would have contained Malbec in the blend at the time.

2024	No priceNot available	Outstanding
2023	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2022	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2021	No priceNot available	Extraordinary
2020	kr 2 431,50Not available	Extraordinary

Category	Red wine
Vinmonopolet no.
Producer	Ch. Belregard-Figeac
Vintages	1996
Country	France, Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Bottle	75 cl

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