2011 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2011 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20118109815
 
2011 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, 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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Description

The very hardworking Becot family are now moving away from an obvious and bold style dominated by oak to a more traditional and fruit driven style of St Emilion. The return to a “real” St Emilion style is showing particularly well here as the wine is very focused and intense, the fruit is precise and the use of oak very well managed with a very long and elegant finish. I am a fan of this estate and very pleased to see the vineyard delivering its true potential.
Max Lalondrelle, Berrys’ Fine Wine Buying Director

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90/100
A masculine, slightly rustic style of St.-Emilion, this dense ruby/purple-hued, medium-bodied 2011 exhibits notes of mulberries, black cherries, earth, graphite and a touch of background oak. It possesses elevated tannins, but a good attack and impressive purity as well as depth. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and drink it over the next 15+ years.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. - 30/04/2014 Read more
Wine Spectator89-92/100
Nice density, with a solid, coated feel midpalate as the fig and boysenberry flavors roll along, supported by graphite, pain d'épices and licorice snap on the back end. Nicely imbedded acidity, too.
Wine Spectator's 2011 Top-Scoring Red Bordeaux
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, April 10, 2012 Read more
Robert Parker90-92/100
A typical example of Beau-Sejour Becot (a 40-acre vineyard on top of St.-Emilion’s limestone plateau), yields were 37 hectoliters per hectare and the wine is relatively powerful for a 2011 (14.5% alcohol). The final blend was 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This modern-styled effort exhibits copious aromas of toasty oak, espresso roast, melted chocolate, black currants and cherries. The nearly exotic, somewhat flamboyant and elegant St.-Emilion is not a big bruiser, but rather possesses plenty of finesse and freshness because of its acid levels. It should drink well for two decades.
Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - April 2012 Read more
Decanter17/20
Deep crimson hue. Attractive fruit with just a hint of raisined ripeness but the palate is firm, fresh and long. A alanced and satisfying St Emilion wine.
Decanter – Bordeaux 2011 coverage – April 2012 Read more

About this WINE

Château Beau-Séjour Bécot

Château Beau-Séjour Bécot

Château Beau-Séjour Bécot has experienced some dramatic ups and downs in recent decades: it was classified a Premier Grand Cru Classé B in 1955, demoted in 1986 and promoted once again, as a Premier Grand Cru Classé B, in 1996.

The terroir is outstanding, most of it atop the limestone plateau. Juliette Bécot and husband Julien Barthe represent the third generation of Juliette’s family here, along with her cousins Pierre and Caroline Bécot. Not so long ago, the wines were turbo-charged and Parker-friendly, ripe with lots of new oak and extraction. Under Juliette and Julien’s guidance, there has been a major turnaround stylistically. Thomas Duclos consults here, having taken over from Michel Rolland.

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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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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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