Château Beau-Séjour Bécot: Tasting & Drinking
The terroir here is admirable, almost pure limestone with meagre soils; one is reminded, looking at it, of the very great estates of St Emilion, such as Château Ausone and, historically at least, Château Belair. And there is historical precedence here too; only a century-or-so ago, prior to the division of the estate, Beauséjour was clearly one of the most highly regarded properties in the appellation, frequently ranked among the very best.
I have found before now the overall style at Château Beau-Séjour Bécot rather difficult to get to grips with. The wines are dark, rich and flavoursome, and lean towards the modern, but they don’t tend to take on the huge tannic substance or ill-defined fruit character seen in the most overtly ambitious wines of the appellation. Nor, however, do they lean too far towards the traditional; they are structured but not austere wines, textured rather than lean. And this quality at Château Beau-Séjour Bécot has shone through in some vintages which, while not perhaps the most highly regarded – vintages such as 2012, 2011, 2008 and 2006 – did allow for dedicated vignerons to turn out some wines of top quality. The 2012 and 2011, for example, two rather forlorn years destined to be overshadowed by 2010, and perhaps 2014, are both surprisingly good wines. Even the 2013, rather a wash-out vintage across all of Bordeaux, is dangerously drinkable.
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