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Neal Martin, February 2026, Score: 95
The 2023 Figeac was bottled in March 2025, a month earlier than usual, with no fining this vintage. This bides its time in the glass, gradually opening with raspberry, dark cherries, light pencil shavings and crushed stone scents. With time, it becomes more floral in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, with sweet red cherry and wild strawberry notes on the entry, quite spicy with white and black pepper notes. Quite long on the velvety finish, this is a classy Figeac that will drink sooner than the previous vintage, but it is still a classy offering. Drink 2029-2050.
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Neal Martin, February 2026, Score: 95
The 2023 Figeac was bottled in March 2025, a month earlier than usual, with no fining this vintage. This bides its time in the glass, gradually opening with raspberry, dark cherries, light pencil shavings and crushed stone scents. With time, it becomes more floral in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, with sweet red cherry and wild strawberry notes on the entry, quite spicy with white and black pepper notes. Quite long on the velvety finish, this is a classy Figeac that will drink sooner than the previous vintage, but it is still a classy offering. Drink 2029-2050.
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Antonio Galloni, April 2024, Score: 95-98
The 2023 Figeac is gorgeous. Seamless and vibrant, with captivating elegance, this is an absolute beauty. What I admire most is its exceptional balance. Everything is in the right place. Time in the glass brings out hints of gravel, dried herbs, licorice, tobacco and cedar that add dimension. Although it is early, Figeac is shaping up to be one of the wines of the vintage. Drink 2033-2073.
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Wine Advocate, April 2024, Score: 96-98
A brilliant classic in the making, the 2023 Figeac unwinds in the glass with aromas of cassis and mulberry mingled with notions of iris, cigar wrapper, pencil shavings, burning embers and spices. Medium to full-bodied, rich and layered, it's deep and concentrated, with an enveloping core of fruit that's framed by powdery tannins and lively acids, concluding with a broad, atypically mineral finish. It's a blend of 41% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon that attained 13.5% alcohol.
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James Suckling, April 2024, Score: 97-98
The density and finesse to this is terrific, offering blackberry, dark chocolate, walnut and hazelnut, as well as currant and sandalwood. Orange peel, too. Full-bodied and compact with a superb core of thick, velvet-textured tannins and a juicy finish. Extremely long. 41% merlot, 32% cabernet franc and 27% cabernet sauvignon.
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Matthew Jukes, April 2024, Score: 19.5+
At Figeac, they were concerned about ripeness in the first part of the year, so the teams organised two green harvests for the Merlot and one for the Cabernet. In the middle of August, they even wondered about de-leafing! Then, a heatwave arrived, and they enjoyed 30-35C for three or four weeks. Everything fell into place. Maturity arrived quickly for Merlot, and they were so keen not to have overripe fruit they harvested the next day at 7am. This meant calling in 50 people immediately. They then worked painstakingly, taking 10 days for just 14ha of Merlot, starting at 7am and finishing at 6pm every day. They chilled every parcel of Merlot overnight and sorted every day. The Merlot harvest finished on the 17th of September, and then they looked closely at the Cabernets, which needed more time, so they stopped for 12 days. They ended up de-leafing the older Cabernet because they didn’t do it in August. As you will have read in other entries, a few welcome drops of rain helped to bring the skins to perfection. The Cabernets’ harvest was as precise as the Merlot vendange. On account of the very small berries, they were incredibly cautious, using low temperatures and a very slow extraction. Once again, the human decisions were critical here, overriding anything the vineyard and the vines might have ended up making without judicious intervention. And in Figeac’s case, the luxury of being able to select and select again resulted in magnificent fruit. The notes on the nose and the sheer expanse of flavour reflect the precise fruit characteristics of each of the three equally important grapes in this wine. The freshness here is spectacular, borne of a unique vintage and how they reacted and triumphed up against every challenge. The tannins are all-consuming, but they are also powdery, refined and super-long, and the flavour keeps growing long after one has tasted the wine. There are moments of exoticism that shock with their unexpected fanfare right at the end of the flavour. There is no doubt this is one of the finest wines of 2023, and given its unique recipe, it is undoubtedly one that true Bordeaux disciples ought to secure for their cellars because there is nothing on earth that tastes like 2023 Figeac.
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Jeb Dunnuck, August 2024, Score: 94-97
The 2023 Château Figeac is Merlot-dominated but includes 32% Cabernet Franc and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the élevage all in new French oak. Classic Figeac purple fruits, tobacco, leafy herbs, violets, and graphite all emerge on the nose, and it hits the palate with medium to full body, a remarkable sense of purity and precision, fine-grained tannins, and a gorgeous finish. Hitting 13.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.68, it's a beautiful wine in the vintage that shows the absolute class of this château today.
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Goedhuis Waddesdon, April 2024, Score: 96-97
2023 Ch Figeac marks the 130th vintage under the ownership of the Manancourt family, and this celebratory wine is fitting for such an anniversary. This St Emilion First Growth is famed for having equal proportions of Bordeaux’s noble red varieties, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, within its vineyard plantings. The finished blend shows a slight adjustment at 41% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon. The end result is the perfect example of how well the very best of each variety has performed in this vintage. It is bold, rich and dark, with abundant black fruits, cherry and currant. Delicious in its generosity, with lovely volume and sensations of liquorice and Indian spice. Vibrant and so very long. Bravo, what an anniversary.
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