Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2022 750ml

#99 in Top 100 Wines, 2025. Tasted on multiple occasions, the 2022 Château Beau-Séjour Bécot is flat-out sensational, as well as the finest wine I’ve tasted from this château. Powerful aromatics of red, blue, and black fruits as well as crushed stone and violets define the aromatics, and it’s full-bodied, incredibly concentrated, has integrated acidity, and ultra-fine tannins. Based on 76% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, this heavenly Saint-Emilion will benefit from just 3-5 years of bottle age and have 30 years or more of overall longevity. Back up the truck.

The 2022 Beau-Séjour Bécot has turned out brilliantly in bottle. Wafting from the glass with a complex bouquet of sweet wild berries mingled with rose petals, orange zest, violets, gentian and espresso roast, it's full-bodied, supple and suave, with a deep core of cool, layered fruit, beautifully vibrant flavors and polished structuring tannins, concluding with a saline finish. As I wrote when I tasted it from barrel, this is a Saint-Émilion of breathtaking perfume and harmony that will be worth a special effort to seek out.

95-97 A blend of 76% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2022 Beau-Sejour Becot has more Cabernet Franc than any previous vintage. The pH is 3.55 pH and it has a deep purple-black color. Notions of blackcurrant jelly, blackberry pie, and warm plums jump from the glass, followed by suggestions of cedar chest, Sichuan pepper, and garrigue. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of juicy black fruit flavors, with bright acidity and ripe, rounded tannins, finishing long and earthy.

#5 in Top 100, 2025. This is very fresh, expressive and focused, with violet, iris and rosehip notes darting to the fore, while notes of sleek raspberry and red currant preserves race along behind. Almost flattering, but there's a subtle chalky tension piercing the finish, which sails through. A dreamy wine. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2026 through 2040.

Floral notes on the nose. Tangy and sharp, lively and bright straight away, sweet and sour, so energetic and lively with a mineral grip from the fine, firm, grippy tannins. Lovely precision and almost delicate presentation of fruit. You really feel the mineral, salty, tangy aspect of the fruit, nothing feels overworked, all in balance, really quite thrilling and electric. Great purity and focus. Scintillating yet still with a lovely volume and roundness accented by tobacco, clove, liquorice and cinnamon touches. Really well worked and fresh - this feels very modern with such control to the fruit, tannins, acidity giving overall depth and complexity. Elegant but confident, taking the best density from clay density and freshness from limestone. A very singular charm with this wine. 3.55pH. 10% press wine.

#8 in Top 100, 2025. The 2022 Beau-Séjour-Bécot comes from a six-pack bought from a UK merchant. I’ve now tasted four bottles, twice sighted and twice blind against two Saint-Émilion wines from the same vintage. On the first and second occasions, I poured the wine for a first assessment, then decanted and monitored it over many hours. Firstly, the calibre of the aromatics is clearly quite fine. It is endowed with copious red and black fruit on the nose: ripe wild strawberries, cassis and espresso, with background aromas of pressed roses. It unequivocally does not possess either the precision or mineralité of, say, the Figeac, but it’s appealing nonetheless. The palate is framed by saturated, satin-textured tannins with sufficient acidity to maintain freshness. Like the nose, it does not have the pixelation, the crystalline attributes, of a top Saint-Émilion. There is power for sure, the growing season made sure a majority of Right Bank wines were endowed with that, though for me to score it higher it would have to demonstrate more precision and mineralité on the all-important finish, which feels slightly blunt and a little bitter. The bottle tasted at Southwold has virtues, not least its fine tannins, though the finish is more herbal than expected and outclassed by its peers in the flight.