Château Beau-Séjour Bécot

The Château Beau-Séjour Bécot vineyard is located on the top of the famous Saint-Martin-de-Mazerat plateau, west of Saint-Émilion, whose clay-limestone soil covers a deep substrate of Asteries limestone with a thin layer of earth. It is even said that in the 3rd century, when the Romans planted the first vines there, they added earth into furrows dug in the limestone where the soil was too thin to ensure the rooting of the vines.
Owners of Château La Carte since 1929, it was in 1969 that Michel Bécot bought Château Beau-Séjour, Premier Grand Cru Classé B, from Dr Fagouet. In 1979, the Bécot family enlarged this estate and it then took the name Château Beau-Séjour Bécot.
In 1985, Michel Bécot retired. His two sons, Gérard and Dominique, continue their father’s work to make a wine of very great quality. Juliette, Gérard Bécot’s daughter, joined the team in 2001 while managing her own estate in the Côtes de Castillon, Joanin Bécot. The Bécot family also owns Château La Gomerie, a famous micro-cuvée of Saint-Émilion.
The harvest and vinifications are carried out in a classic manner. The grapes are transported in small crates that prevent crushing and harmful oxidation until the sorting tables, where each berry is selected. These are vinified in temperature-controlled vats as wide as they are tall, which increases and improves the contact between the grape skins and the juice.
Since 1992, malolactic fermentations have taken place in new barrels, and the wines continue to be aged in the same type of container for 12 to 18 months depending on the vintage. Then, once bottled, the wines complete their finery in underground cellars (1.5 ha) or in an air-conditioned cellar.
Describing the wines of Beau-Séjour Bécot is both easy and a challenge. Their sumptuous colour and expressive, intense nose herald a wine for laying down whose complex aromas of ripe fruit, oak, vanilla and spice bewitch the taster. On the palate, they are silky, generous and offer well-integrated, elegant and well-bred tannins. Their long, aromatic finish completes their revelation in a breathtaking symphony.