This is plush and warm in feel, with lots of currant and fig preserve flavors rolling through, inlaid with tobacco, warm stone and bittersweet cocoa notes. Shows a hefty dose of roasted alder on the finish, but in general this has been absorbed, making this a step ahead in terms of evolution, but there's no rush, as a racy iron streak is just starting to show up.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Drink now through 2035. 8,333 cases made. — JM

Fine sweet fruit nose; rich elegant, finely tannic; long, refined and fresh, a really lovely Figeac with great length of both fruit and aroma, complex, complete, but at its best in a decade. 2025-40+

Tasted at the Château Figeac vertical at the property. While I enjoy the 2005 Figeac, there is still a sense of a potential great Saint Emilion falling short of what it could have been. Now with ten years on the clock, the nose is cool and focused, very Pauillac-like in style, the Cabernet Sauvignon driving it along. With time it begins to open up and loosen its tie, revealing a pleasing licorice scent. The palate is medium-bodied with a pleasurable, supple, fleshy entry. It seems to offer black rather than red fruit at the moment, the acidity well judged. So why the parsimonious score? Well, it doesn't build on this promise, as if it runs out of ideas two-thirds of the way through. It takes the easy option and declines to offer that tension and complexity on the finish that certainly the aromatics deserve. In fact, this might well be the only wine where I prefer the 2006 to the 2005. Tasted June 2015.

Robert Parker (Wine Advocate #226, Aug 2016)

The 2005 Figeac has been a variable performer over the years, one where you never quite know what to expect until you pull the corks. As usual, it has a sullen bouquet at first before offering broody black fruit laced with melted tar and tobacco, hints of liquorice almost reluctantly evolving with time. The palate is medium-bodied and quite conservative, rather "static" in the glass, missing the tension and animation that I think recent vintages have conveyed. There is an impressive solid nature to this Figeac, though it lacks that crucial element...charm.