Château Figeac St Emilion 2020

The 2020 Figeac is the finest wine that has been bottled to date at this estate since its renaissance began a decade ago. Wafting from the glass with aromas of blackberries and raspberries mingled with cigar wrapper, pencil shavings, licorice and black truffles, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a suave, harmonious profile, vibrant acids, and beautifully refined structuring tannins. This sapid, complex wine represents the essence of this great terroir. Two years after extensive soil studies of the estate were carried out, and the first growing season to see cover crops used in the vineyards year-round, the 2020 benefited from more coherently demarcated parcels and more precise élevage, which taken together help to account for its edge over the excellent 2019.

The Grand Vin 2020 Château Figeac checks in as 37% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 31% Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 18 months in new barrels. They also utilize plenty of press wine, and the 2020 has 8% in the blend. Straight-up awesome aromatics of crème de cassis, ripe black cherries, iron, spring flowers, and an almost bloody, salty character emerge from the glass, and it's full-bodied, with a seamless mouthfeel, gorgeous tannins, plenty of mid-palate depth, and absolutely perfectly integrated oak. It's still tight and reserved, which is certainly the vintage, so do your best to hide these in the cellar. It should hit the early stages of its prime drinking window in 8-10 years and will have 30+ of overall longevity. It will unquestionably flirt with perfection at maturity.

Cellar Selection. Newly promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé A, the very highest rung of Saint-Emilion's hierarchy, this estate is at peak performance. This new release, rich in Cabernet Sauvignon, has an impressive structure as well as modulated, velvet tannins. It is a serious, concentrated wine, still just starting out. Drink the wine from 2027.

The 2020 Figeac was bottled in mid July. It has an exquisite bouquet that unfolds effortlessly in the glass with blackberry, crushed stone, graphite and fresh fig scents. It blossoms with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly edgy tannins on the entry that frame the pure black fruit. It's very harmonious and silky smooth in texture that almost disguises what Frederic Faye terms the "verticality" of the wine. Fresh and saline on the finish with just a light pepper touch on the aftertaste. An absolute treat.

A broad-shouldered wine that captures the vintage's heat well in a core of cassis and blackberry fruit flavors, which are dotted with lively savory, tobacco leaf and warm earth accents. Reveals a tarry, grippy edge as well as polish as this pulls deeply from its terroir, leaving an echo of warm paving stone at the very end. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2030 through 2040. 12,480 cases made.