2012 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot, St Emilion, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
The 2012 Beau-Séjour Bécot was picked between 9 and 18 October. This has a rich and quite decadent bouquet compared to other vintages: copious red cherry and wild strawberry fruit mixed with blueberry and maybe just a touch of VA. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannin, sweet and generous in the mouth with touches of fig and damson jam towards the finish. It is a lovely, caressing Beau-Séjour Bécot although perhaps I might have picked this just a little earlier? Tasted at the château.
Drink 2018 - 2038
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2018)
A spectacular wine from this nearly 50-acre vineyard situated atop St.-Emilion’s famed limestone plateau, the final blend for the 2012 Beau-Sejour Becot was 70% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Franc and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. It achieved 14% natural alcohol and yields were 31 hectoliters per hectare. One of the stars of the vintage, it is elegant yet powerful, rich and authoritative with abundant black raspberry, blueberry, graphite and toasty vanillin notes. Full-bodied and super rich for a 2012, it is packed with potential. The tannins are ripe as well as abundant suggesting several years of bottle age will be required. It should turn out to be a 20 year proposition.
Drink 2013 - 2033
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (April 2013)
Tasted blind. Mid crimson. Perfumed. Rather gloriously opulent but not sickly, this spreads right across the palate. Proper wine! No exaggeration. Clean, fresh finish.
Drink 2019 - 2030
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2022)
A red with juicy fruit and fine tannins including a dried meat and smoke undertone. Full body, tight tannins and a flavorful finish. Improved in barrel. A joy to taste.
Better in 2018
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2015)
Ripe and savoury on the nose. Palate sweet and plump but fresh. Firm, long, dry finish. Tannins a little angular. La Gomerie now incorporated.
Drink 2020 - 2028
James Lawther MW, Decanter.com
About this WINE
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.
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
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.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
A vibrant nose jumps out of the glass of this wine, with chocolate, mocha and plum notes to the fore. There is some real flesh and weight on this gorgeous nose! It has a lovely mouthfeel to the palate too, with plump red fruit and a spicy oak edge. There is a finesse and freshness to this that really sets it apart. A very classy wine this year from Ch. Beau-Séjour Bécot.
Superbly located on the limestone plateau in the heart of St. Emilion, Ch. Beau-Sejour-Becot’s is one of the leading 1er Grand Cru Classe ‘B’ properties in the appellation. The 20ha of vineyards are primarily planted to Merlot, with Cabernet Franc and a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon also contributing to the final blend. Often full bodied, the wines demonstrate the rich potential of Merlot on the Right Bank.
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