The purity, elegance, refinement, and walls of perfectly ripe, sweet, sensuous fruits are almost off the charts here! Aromatically, the floral bouquet with accents of espresso, black plums, cherries, black raspberries, spice, licorice, and wet earth can keep any taster busy for ages. But the magic really hits you when the wine begins caressing your palate with its opulent, luscious, silky, velvet-drenched layers of fruit, and freshness which steals the show. The seamless, 60-second plus finish is riveting, inspiring you to go back for another sniff, swirl, and sip for the pleasure of it. I do not often drink when tasting. But we finished every drop of this bottle. This is a serious candidate for triple-digit perfection after a decade of aging. Drink from 2027-2065. Tasted March 2023

The Grand Vin 2020 Château Figeac checks in as 37% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 31% Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 18 months in new barrels. They also utilize plenty of press wine, and the 2020 has 8% in the blend. Straight-up awesome aromatics of crème de cassis, ripe black cherries, iron, spring flowers, and an almost bloody, salty character emerge from the glass, and it's full-bodied, with a seamless mouthfeel, gorgeous tannins, plenty of mid-palate depth, and absolutely perfectly integrated oak. It's still tight and reserved, which is certainly the vintage, so do your best to hide these in the cellar. It should hit the early stages of its prime drinking window in 8-10 years and will have 30+ of overall longevity. It will unquestionably flirt with perfection at maturity. March 2023

A ripe, herbal-edged nose full of Cabernet Franc perfumed florality; violets, plums, black cherries and figs. Compelling weight on the palate, this has density and drive from the first sip with tannins that are really well integrated but have more of a juicy, high-acid edge than overtly plush, with a soft chalkiness and real mineral vein - the graphite, wet stone edges giving clear terroir markers. Lots of tension here, direct and focused; you can feel the sculpting but there’s lots of energy too – such liveliness underpinning the serious core and wide, firm structure. Poised, layered and complex, a lot going on with cinnamon, clove and cedar on the finish. A total knock-out where each sip gives a slightly different facet building to an impressive whole. Such is Figeac’s power of seduction, this makes you want to sit with it for a while marvelling at the complexity with a smile on your face. A Figeac that you're going to have to wait for, and just have lots of the excellent Petit Figeac in the meantime! Drinking Window: 2029 - 2058
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Bordeaux, 03 Jan 2023)
Part of Bordeaux 2020 in bottle: overview plus top-scoring wines

(37% M, 32% CF, 31% CS; 77% harvest; 13.9% ABV; 100% new)
Dense, richly blackcurrant-ripe and mineral-saturated, rich, ripe, and fresh to smell; concentrated, vigorous, firmly but finely tannic, a superb balance; a dense, compact, vivid wine, sweet, vital, racy, and mineral, beautifully sustained and carried across a very long palate, and with an aroma and fruit finish that mirrors all that has gone before. Figeac’s roughly one-third-each blend here is a clear Right Bank bonus in the current climate, so here there is Cabernet Franc floral subtlety, Cabernet Sauvignon tension and complexity, and, of course, that core Merlot flesh. This is the third great wine in a magnificent trio, brimming with class, scope, finesse. Great, glorious, beautiful Figeac. Should already be lovely within the decade, and then for three more and beyond. 2030–60+.

The 2020 Figeac was bottled in mid-July. It has an exquisite bouquet that unfolds effortlessly in the glass with blackberry, crushed stone, graphite and fresh fig scents. It blossoms with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly edgy tannins on the entry that frame the pure black fruit. It's very harmonious and silky smooth in texture that almost disguises what Frédéric Faye terms the "verticality" of the wine. Fresh and saline on the finish with just a light black pepper touch on the aftertaste. An absolute treat.

A broad-shouldered wine that captures the vintage's heat well in a core of cassis and blackberry fruit flavors, which are dotted with lively savory, tobacco leaf and warm earth accents. Reveals a tarry, grippy edge as well as polish as this pulls deeply from its terroir, leaving an echo of warm paving stone at the very end. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2030 through 2040. JM March 2023

The 2020 Figeac is incredibly polished and refined. Bright saline underpinnings and lively acids shape the 2020 beautifully, lending notable energy throughout. This is the last vintage made in the transitional cellar before the new winery became operational with the 2021 vintage. My only question mark is a slightly gritty quality in the tannins that lurks beneath. There's terrific purity and drive, though. Figeac is a wine of saline tension and energy more than size. The 2020 will need a number of years in bottle to be at its best.

37% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon. 77% of production. Cask sample.
Gentle, juicy and pure with nothing overdone. Merlot provides the broad-brush sweetness on attack, the Cabernet the fresh, minerally notes on the finish. Fine grain of tannin and aromatic complexity on the nose and palate; the finesse is there. (JL)

A mesmerizing nose here with flowers such as violets and red roses, then shows cherries and currants with some mineral and black truffles. Full-bodied yet so refined and harmonized with ultra-fine tannins that run the length of the wine. Flavors of perfectly ripened fruit (al dente) with a hazelnut character that comes from the seeds. Incredibly transparent young red. Breathtaking. 37% merlot, 32% cabernet franc and 31% cabernet sauvignon. Drink after 2028 and onwards. Magnificent. Nov 2023

The 2020 Figeac is the finest wine that has been bottled to date at this estate since its renaissance began a decade ago. Wafting from the glass with aromas of blackberries and raspberries mingled with cigar wrapper, pencil shavings, licorice and black truffles, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a suave, harmonious profile, vibrant acids, and beautifully refined structuring tannins. This sapid, complex wine represents the essence of this great terroir. Two years after extensive soil studies of the estate were carried out, and the first growing season to see cover crops used in the vineyards year-round, the 2020 benefited from more coherently demarcated parcels and more precise élevage, which taken together help to account for its edge over the excellent 2019. WK April 2023