2025 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, St-Emilion

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.

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.

The 2025 Beau-Séjour Bécot has all the requisites to take its place alongside the 2022 and the other extraordinary wines of 2025. Aromatic and layered, with striking presence, the 2025 is majestic. Deep, dark red fruit, pomegranate, mint, chalk, white pepper, rose petal and lavender soar from the glass. Bright saline notes drive through the mid-palate and into a finish marked by intense fruit and vibrant minerality. The purity here is just off the charts. Yields were 32 hectoliters per hectare. The 2025 saw a cold soak of 15 days followed by another 27 days or so on the skins, on the longer side for Bordeaux. Blending is done before the wines see oak. There are good wines, exceptional wines, and then emotional wines. Beau-Séjour Bécot falls into the third category. Unforgettable. Tasted two times.