critic reviews
The 2022 Beau-Séjour-Bécot comes from a six-pack bought from a UK merchant. I’ve now tasted four bottles, twice sighted and twice blind against two Saint-Émilion wines from the same vintage. On the first and second occasions, I poured the wine for a first assessment, then decanted and monitored it over many hours. Firstly, the calibre of the aromatics is clearly quite fine. It is endowed with copious red and black fruit on the nose: ripe wild strawberries, cassis and espresso, with background aromas of pressed roses. It unequivocally does not possess either the precision or mineralité of, say, the Figeac, but it’s appealing nonetheless. The palate is framed by saturated, satin-textured tannins with sufficient acidity to maintain freshness. Like the nose, it does not have the pixelation, the crystalline attributes, of a top Saint-Émilion. There is power for sure, the growing season made sure a majority of Right Bank wines were endowed with that, though for me to score it higher it would have to demonstrate more precision and mineralité on the all-important finish, which feels slightly blunt and a little bitter. The bottle tasted at Southwold has virtues, not least its fine tannins, though the finish is more herbal than expected and outclassed by its peers in the flight.
A blend of 76% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2022 Beau-Sejour Becot has more Cabernet Franc than any previous vintage. The pH is 3.55 pH and it has a deep purple-black color. Notions of blackcurrant jelly, blackberry pie, and warm plums jump from the glass, followed by suggestions of cedar chest, Sichuan pepper, and garrigue. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of juicy black fruit flavors, with bright acidity and ripe, rounded tannins, finishing long and earthy.
With the 2022 Beau-Sejour Becot, this estate has taken another step up the ranks in Saint-Emilion, producing a wine of breathtaking perfume and harmony that will be worth a special effort to seek out. Wafting from the glass with aromas of wild berries, violets, lilac, raw cocoa and forest floor, it's medium to full-bodied, seamless and complete, with an ample and enveloping core of weightless fruit, beautifully powdery tannins and a long, saline, resonant finish. Recently planted massale selection Cabernet Franc is now producing meaningful yields at this address, so this cepage now represents 22% of the blend, complemented by 2% Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance Merlot. The team harvested only in the mornings, picking Merlot from 5-18 September and Cabernet from 13-23 September, sub-block by sub-block.