Chateau Figeac

[Comte Flaneur]

This morning we did a Decanter master class with Eric  D'Aramon of Chateau Figeac. He explained that he makes wines he wants to drink and doesn't care what the critics think. Moreover he thinks that consumers are finally starting to see through the garagistes and coming back to more classically styled wines. 

2010

Opaque, plummy nose, with mineral and menthol notes. Structured, tannic backbone, finesse without exuberance ; long mineral finish. A superb wine in the making for long ageing.

2009

A much more exotic and exuberant wine than the 2010 and much more approachable. Fragrant and plummy, with good backbone, but should be drinking within ten years.

2008

A very classic style of Figeac. Not a blockbuster but  fragrant and spicy, with more finesse and elegance than the nine and ten. It lacks the opulence of the 2009 because the merlot was less ripe. But it has a long, minerally finish. 

2007

A wine  made for early drinking, this is just starting to express itself. Fruit, herbs and minerals and a silky finish. 

2006

A much more expressive nose of black and red cherries with an extremely refined and silky finish. Balanced, refined, smooth as silk. This is a gorgeous wine quite a step up from the 2007.

2005

Fabulous attack and expression, with fully body and power adding smoke and bonfire to the mix of exotic cherries and plums. Inexplicably this falls off diagonally on the palate. A second bottle was the same.

2004

Strangely mute, subdued on the nose and palate. It has a nice silky palate but not much going on. Like the 04 Baron needs time to come out of its shell.

2003

This wine is a lot of fun but is an uncouth interloper amongst the Figeac cognoscenti. A little hot, low acid and some would say flat, but this s a delicious quaffer. 

1998

Complex and intellectual a wine which is transmogrifying into something very special methinks. More notes of bonfire and exotic cherries, complex notes, this needs your full attention. Not exuberant, but very refined and the best is yet to come.

1986

Garnet and mesmerising notes of fruit cake, Chistmas cake, olives and tapenade. This is a gorgeous mature wine to die for. 

The stand outs here are the 2006 and 2008 among the younger wines (allowing the predictable quality of the nine and ten) and the 1998 , something special still in the making, and the 1986, the finished article. 

[hautbrionlover]

I am down to my last bottle of the '90 Figeac, which i've always liked.
But at a wine dinner back in 2001, i had the 1982 (excellent) and the 1949, which is one the the greatest Bordeaux i have ever had.

[AlexR]

I see you've been a busy boy lately, Ian .

I've always liked Figeac, and the house style is to make wines that don't take forever to age...

Alex R.