My weekly Merlot is often found in ordinary places: I buy it from pizza joints and grocery stores, I quaff it at office parties and on barstools. It’s red, it’s fruity. I taste it earnestly and thirstily, no matter how humble the bottle.
But occasionally, the Merlot encounter is quite extraordinary–glasses around a table with the winemaker, grapes from sites that were first planted in another millennium. So it was this week, when I sat down for a six-wine tasting led by Julien Barthe of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot.
Barthe, alongside his wife Juliette Bécot, manages the Premier Grand Cru Classé B estate located on Saint-Émilion’s famous limestone plateau. This elevated piece of ground is widely recognized as one of the world’s best habitats for Merlot.
I tasted three vintages of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot’s main wine and two vintages of Château Joanin Bécot, Juliette’s estate located in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux, just north-east of Saint-Émilion. A second wine (Petit Bécot) is made from the fruit of the young Merlot vines that will eventually form the core of the grand vin of Château Beau-Séjour Bécot.
“Protect the berries”: Merlot, winemaking, and stewardship
“The critics say I am half Bordeaux winemaker, half Burgundy winemaker,” Barthe said of his sometimes unusual approach. “But I like to think about how we can introduce more aromatic complexity into the wine.”
His preferred winemaking techniques include extended cold maceration, very restrained cap management with no punch-downs, and–starting with the 2018 vintage–whole-cluster fermentation of some of the Cabernet Franc portion of the blend. Oak is used sparingly, with only light or medium toast applied to the barrels. A small portion of the Merlot goes into large-format amphorae, for “crunchy” fruit freshness. In short, Barthe says, “My philosophy as a winemaker is to protect the berries.”
Beau-Séjour’s vineyards are planted to 80% Merlot, with the limestone-rich plots reserved for Cabernet Franc. Barthe is no fan of Cabernet Sauvignon for this terroir–under his tenure, the last of the Cab Sauv was removed and the land left to recover under plantings of clover and rye.
Barthe rejects irrigation as a solution to a warming climate, arguing that it would compromise the estate’s quality goals. He has pulled up vineyard rows and re-oriented them from east-west to north-south to protect the fruit from hot afternoon sun. He describes the re-planting and the fallow periods as the single biggest investment his generation has made in Beau-Séjour’s future.
Looking at the long legacy of this vineyard, a single generation of improvement projects shifts into perspective. The predecessors of today’s vines arrived with the Romans, and the hardened furrows of ancient vineyard rows are still visible on the property.
And then there is the cellar. Besides Merlot (of course), the estate specializes in large-format bottles and long aging. Beneath Beau-Séjour’s 22 hectares of vineyards lie 7 hectares of old limestone quarries filled with vinous treasures.
In the cool, underground tunnels lie a high proportion of magnums, 3- and 6-liter bottles–even early vintages from the 1920s and 1930s that fortuitously escaped the German occupation during World War II. So, however old you are, Beau-Séjour’s wine steward could probably pour you a Saint-Émilion that’s older!
Tasting Château Beau-Séjour Bécot (2018)
All of the wines we tasted were characterized by pure and wild red fruit and the salt-tinged finish that is the winery’s signature. But the #MerlotThursday custom requires choosing only one bottle, so I will focus for a moment on the 2018 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot.
Red-plum colored with a vibrant, enticing nose of wild strawberry, rose, thyme, mint, pepper, and anise oil. On the palate, red cherry, red currant, and some darker fruit (blackberry), with lingering spice (aniseed, fenugreek), blood orange, and saline minerality. Medium-plus body and acidity with a round, rich texture, well-calibrated alcohol and a velvety but drying finish. Ripe Cabernet Franc stems, included in the whole-bunch fermentation, contribute tannin, potassium, and woodsy spice to the blend.
It’s not a dense style, but it’s characterized by fruit-tea freshness and delicacy along with exceptional aromatics. The older vintages that I tasted add savory herbs, dried cherry, earth, meat/soy, and salted plum–suggesting that this is a wine that can age beautifully despite its gentle extraction.
Bottle: Château Beau-Séjour Bécot Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé (2018)
Variety: Merlot (80%), Cabernet Franc (15%), Cabernet Sauvignon (5%)
ABV: 14.5%
Suggested retail: $90
My rating: 9.3 (out of 10)
On Thursdays, we Merlot! You can view archived #MerlotThursday reviews here.
Other wines tasted:
Petit Bécot Saint-Émilion Grand Cru (2019)
Château Joanin Bécot Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux (2019)
Château Joanin Bécot Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux (2016)
Château Beau-Séjour Bécot Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé (2014)
Château Beau-Séjour Bécot Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé (2005)
Review disclosure: I attended this tasting as a guest of the importer/distributor. I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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