Château Beau Séjour Bécot, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion, 2025
Julien Barthe has been doing a tremendous job at Beau Sejour Becot since he arrived in St Emilion in 2014. Michel Rolland was replaced by Thomas Duclos in 2018 and together they have produced wines with greater finesse and elegance. This site, next to Beausejour and Canon is based on pure limestone, which has resulted in a more red-fruited, energetic style. Redolent with red cherries, redcurrants and alpine strawberry, there's an impressive core of creamy textured fruit with hints of vanilla, nutmeg and orange rind, finishing with a touch of salinity and well judged tannins. This is a St Emilion to keep your eye on.
critic reviews
The 2025 Beau-Séjour Bécot was picked from September 5 to 12 for the Merlot and September 17 and 18 for the Cabernet Franc, which represents 20% of the blend due to new plantings that are reorientated north-south instead of east-west. Proprietor Juliette Bécot told me that yields were 32 hl/ha, mainly due to the initiation florale; they conducted a long 15-day cold maceration and used 50% new barrels, 37% foudres and the remainder in used barrel and amphora, malo done in vat. The nose takes a few minutes to open in the glass. Mineral-rich black and red fruit, clearly limestone-driven, touches of graphite and briny scents emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with sapid red fruit, mainly raspberry with some white-tipped strawberry. Like others, the limestone really comes through in this wine that could almost be described as "rocky". Linear and correct on the finish, again, it will gain more flesh during its barrel maturation and it will become an extremely fine and classy Saint-Émilion. 13.4% alcohol.
Clear depth, sinew and crunchy cranberry, blueberry and red cherry fruit, with tension, minerality, salinity, a ton of juice and mouthwatering freshness on the finish, sea spray, saffron and tobacco leaf, curls of woodsmoke and iris flowers as it opens. Great stuff, with precision and possibility, and the DNA of the location. 16ha in production out of 22ha potential, cold soak for 15C at 6 days, 32 hl/ha. 3.4 pH. 55% new oak. Harvest September 5 to 18. Thomas Duclos consultant.
The 2025 Beau-Séjour Bécot continues this estate's brilliant run of vintages with what will surely number among their finest to date. A blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, this compelling wine opens in the glass with a pure and incipiently complex bouquet of dark berries and plums mingled with floral accents of iris and lilac. Medium- to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a concentrated core of fruit, sweet tannin and a bright spine of animating acidity, it concludes with a long, mineral finish. Beau-Séjour Bécot's limestone terroir is front and center in the glass.