Château Beau-Séjour Bécot 1994 and Château Figeac 2009

Two Saint-Émilions, two decades apart, and a perfect reminder of how wildly different this appellation can be.

Beau-Séjour Bécot 1994 comes from a time when the plateau still felt almost secret. Before consultants, before modern extraction, before the arms race of the 2000s. Wines like this show what limestone does when you simply let it speak. Age turns the volume down on fruit and up on texture, earth and calm refinement.

Figeac 2009 belongs to a completely different chapter. By then, Figeac was already leaning confidently into its Cabernet identity, long before the estate’s recent trio of near-perfect vintages made headlines. 2009 shows why that choice made sense. The structure is unmistakable, the energy unmistakably Figeac.

And in between them, a bottle of Champagne Alexandre Bonnet, the unofficial diplomat of the evening. It didn’t get a deep dive today, but it certainly kept the conversation lively.