2005 Château Figeac, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2005 Château Figeac, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20051009769
Prices start from £2,699.00 per case Buying options
2005 Château Figeac, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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12 x 75cl bottle
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Description

Horizontal Tasting of 2005s on 12/11/09.  Because of its high proportion of Cabernets, Figeac is always the most restrained (and sometimes misunderstood) of the best St. Emilions, with a lacy quality in lighter years, but with a beguiling presentation in the best.  In 2005 the wine has majestic harmony for, although the tannins are exceptional, they are also perfectly ripened.  The finish is lifted by a creamy, fresh acidity whilst the multitude of scents and flavours of black fruit, leather, dried spice and liquorice swirl and ascend on the palate.  This is an impeccable Figeac, almost accessible now, but glorious in 10 years (and for many more after that).
Mark Pardoe MW, BBR Wholesale - Tasted at the St Emilion, Pomerol, Graves and Sauternes Cellar Tasting, 03/12/09

Fabulously fine and ripe tannins coat this intense kernel of highly defined fruit. Screamingly good and in direct competition in quality terms with St Emilion rivals 10 times the price. The only downside is you cant really open it up now and get on with it...very frustrating! However have a little bit of patience and tuck it away with your other 05's and you're in for a total treat. Sumptuous!
Simon Staples - Fine Wine Director - 25-Oct-2008

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90/100
Tasted at the Chteau Figeac vertical at the property. While I enjoy the 2005 Figeac, there is still a sense of a potential great Saint Emilion falling short of what it could have been. Now with ten years on the clock, the nose is cool and focused, very Pauillac-like in style, the Cabernet Sauvignon driving it along. With time it begins to open up and loosen its tie, revealing a pleasing licorice scent. The palate is medium-bodied with a pleasurable, supple, fleshy entry. It seems to offer black rather than red fruit at the moment, the acidity well judged. So why the parsimonious score? Well, it doesn't build on this promise, as if it runs out of ideas two-thirds of the way through. It takes the easy option and declines to offer that tension and complexity on the finish that certainly the aromatics deserve. In fact, this might well be the only wine where I prefer the 2006 to the 2005. Tasted June 2015.
Neal Martin - 31/08/2016 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW17/20
Dark purplish crimson. Looks younger than many. Very solid and intriguing on the nose. Much less developed than most. Full and bloody on the palate entry–very dry – quite a different build, Angelus and Figeac are chalk and cheese…. Extremely dry rather than sweet. Firm tannins. Needs lots and lots of time.
Jancis Robinson - jancisrobinson.com - 10-Dec-2007 Read more
Decanter95/100
The tightrope stage of a wine as it shifts from young to mature, the tertiary notes coming to the fore are very welcome in its second decade, although it is perhaps just a little more evolved than I would expect. But this is stunning, there is so much hidden power, with layers of complex cedar, rose petal and soft woodsmoke. As it opens in the glass, the slight dryness on the finish becomes more apparent, but so does the sweet gentleness of this vintage. It can clearly still age for a good few decades, but would also be ready to drink with some decanting first. The 36hl/ha yield in this vintage is due mainly to the extremely dry summer.
Jane Anson, Decanter
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About this WINE

Château Figeac

Château Figeac

Château Figeac is one of the leading St. Emilion estates and its wine, with its high Cabernet content, has often been described as the most Médoc-like in St-Emilion. The estate is located in the north-west of the appellation with its vineyards adjoining those of Cheval Blanc. Its 54 hectares of vineyards lie on a deep, Médoc-like gravel topsoil over a flinty, iron-rich subsoil. Figeac was promoted in 2022 to the level of Premier Grand Cru Classé A, the top tier of the St Emilion classification.

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St Émilion

St Émilion

St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank. 

St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel. 

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol.  Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.  

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices.  The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.

St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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