Château Figeac 2019

The 2019 vintage in Saint-Émilion

Vintage benchmark: 95/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot end of summer on rehydrated soils gave a rare balance between freshness and substance.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Émilion. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The colour of the 2019, with its deep, brilliant, amaranthine red hue and bright purple glints, testifies to the beautiful ripeness of this vintage. The nose is intensely aromatic, pure and reveals great finesse. Our Cabernets find their full expression through notes of flowers and fruit, such as blueberries and Mara des Bois strawberries. Delicious and dense on the entry to the palate, the wine develops harmoniously on the mid-palate with the gentle, enveloping texture of the Merlot. Showing exceptional length of flavour, the wine maintains a balance that follows right through to the finish, in which the fine, mineral texture of the Cabernets is elevated by the freshness of the fruit flavour. 2019 will go down in the history of Château-Figeac as one of its benchmark vintages.

The vintage

Early budding slowed by the return of cold weather. Record mild temperatures at the end of winter led the vines to emerge early from dormancy. A cold snap in mid-April slowed vegetation growth considerably; the team successfully protected the vines from frost on the nights of 13th and 14th April and again on 5th and 6th May. Mid-flowering was reached between 2nd and 6th June; fruit-set, especially that of the Merlot, boded a smallish crop.

From 17th June the weather pattern reversed: summer set in with scorching heat until the end of July (22 days above 30°C in July). The three grape varieties coped with these dry conditions thanks to their deep rooting systems, which reach the blue clay of the subsoil, a real reservoir of moisture. On 26th July, 40 mm of rain in a single day rehydrated the vines and kick-started the véraison. From mid-August, ripening took place in optimal conditions, with temperature swings of up to 15°C between day and night.

Harvesting began early, on 13th September with the young Merlot vines, and continued from 19th September with the Cabernets, until 7th October. After 4 weeks of harvesting, the crop, though small, was of beautiful quality.

Blend of the 2019 vintage

Winemaking

Gentle vinification without addition of sulphites; each vat has its own extraction programme, set according to the ripeness of the must.

Terroir

Figeac is the largest estate in Saint-Emilion, covering 54 hectares. Alongside its 40 hectares of vines, the variety of its landscape contributes to what is now called a natural balance, or "biodiversity". Figeac has large open spaces that add to the majesty of the place and allow wildlife and flora to thrive. Figeac has received a true gift from nature: an enviable Bordeaux climate, an exceptional relief made up of 3 fine gravel mounds, and a soil reputed to hold the largest gravels of the area. This magnificent terroir is the basis for the estate's ranking among the Premiers Grands Crus of Saint-Emilion.