Bottle five from a case which has been resting in storage for at least 15 years.
It has evolved glacially, is still on the upslope, and is a multi-decade wine and still on a slow evolutionary track.
Black olives, hedgerow, dark fruits, herbs, sea smoke, shaved dark (Bournville) chocolate, tobacco notes, featuring cigar wrapper, a relatively shy wine, but intricately woven, it builds and builds.
Still enigmatic, with equanimity and precision - this is a wine which will unfurl and unfurl its magical wares.
I suspect anyone young enough to drink a good bottle of this in 30 years time will be in for a veritable treat.
I am hosting a dinner next week for a significant event where this wine will feature in the first flight of right banks versus 99 Cheval Blanc and 14 VCC- I suspect it may become submerged in the melee - there are subsequent flights of Graves/Pessac, Margaux, St-J and Pauillac - but I was happy - actually thrilled - with this 98 Figeac; it opened its heart to me tonight but has so much more to give in the next two or three decades. In that sense a vin de garde.
Pictured with some enduring right bank ghosts, blurred into immortality, in the background:
