Description

The first vintage produced in the estate’s highly functional new winery, the 2023 Beau-Séjour Bécot has turned out beautifully and looks likely to rival or surpass the brilliant 2022. Unfurling in the glass with notes of raspberries, dark berries and minty cherries mingled with notions of iris, wisteria and lilac, it’s medium to full-bodied, layered and velvety, with a suave attack that prefaces a cool, complete core of fruit that’s pure, perfumed and mineral, concluding with a long, saline finish. It’s a blend of 77% Merlot and 23% Cabernet Franc that was harvested from September 7 to October 4, sub-block by sub-block.
96-98 points
William Kelley – Wine Advocate (Apr 27, 2024)

The 2023 Beau-Séjour Bécot is fabulous. Rich, opulent and explosive to the core, the 2023 offers up a heady mélange of dark red/purplish fruit, spice, lavender, rose petal, blood orange and bright saline notes. As always, Cabernet Franc plays an important role in shaping the aromatic and flavor profile. The 2023 is an absolute stunner. It’s the first vintage made in the new cellar. That’s of course not enough of a track record to make any definitive assessments, but in the 2023, I see a wine with more aromatic presence, greater precision and more refined tannins than any recent vintage I can recall. In a word: magnificent. Tasted two times. Drink 2031-2053.
95-98 points
Antonio Galloni – Vinous

A brilliant wine from this estate in 2023. Gorgeous bright purple rim. Fresh blueberries and black cherries on the nose with crayon, pencil lead, tapenade, olive and liquorice. Tangy and so alive on the palate, crystalline and pure, really clean and clear. The limestone comes through strongly in the wet stone aspects, a metallic coating of the mouth. This has a touch of tension, with mouthwatering acidity, as well as some subtle fleshiness that really expands towards the finish, where the wine settles and grows. A lovely, very singular style. Great juiciness, almost salty strawberry juice with cranberry and raspberry that really lingers. This will grow into a beauty. Tannins are flawless, there’s density but no heaviness. One of the best! The second year with a significant part of massale selection Cabernet Franc in the blend. 39hl/ha yield. 3.5pH, 68 IPT. Drink 2033 – 2048.
97 points
Georgina Hindle – Decanter

The intensity, length, and purity are impossible to ignore this year. The wine offers strong floral characteristics coupled with sweet, ripe, red cherries, licorice, black raspberries, and a hint of cocoa. The wine is silky, elegant, long, and refined. The fruit is incredibly, soft, sweet, and pure. The key point in the vintage was their water-retentive, limestone terroir that nourished the vines during the dry part of the growing season. 2023 is the first vintage produced in the estates new cellars, which allowed for precision wine making, which was needed in this difficult vintage. The aging is different starting with the 2023 as well, now the wine is aged in 55% new, French oak barrels, with 20% of the harvest aging in foudres. The wine blends 77% Merlot, with 22% Cabernet Franc. 14.1%, ABV, 3.5 pH. The harvest took place, September 7 – October 4. Drink from 2029-2060.
96-98 points
Jeff Leve – The Wine Cellar Insider