2020 Chateau Beausejour Becot Petit Becot

The 2020 Beauséjour Bécot has a winsome bouquet with precise, focused and mineral-driven red fruit that shimmers with tension. The palate is medium-bodied with seamlessly integrated oak and hints of black pepper and cedar. It fans out toward the finish with supreme confidence. The terroir really comes through in this wine. This is not to be underestimated. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

A terrific performance for an estate on a continuing upward trajectory, the 2020 Beau-Séjour Bécot unwinds in the glass with a deep bouquet of cherries and blackberries mingled with violets and spices. Medium to full-bodied, pure and layered, it's deep and concentrated, with a vibrant core of fruit, polished tannins and a long, sapid finish. The 2020 is a blend of 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, some two-thirds of which was matured in new oak, with the balance in tanks, amphorae and foudres.

Beau-Sejour Becot is on a hot streak and 2020 shows why. Opening with a wealth of flowers before you get to all the red, black and blue fruits, thyme, spice-box, espresso beans, cocoa and licorice in the bouquet. The palate is even better with its multiple-layers of crushed stones, sensuous fruits, velvet-tannins and long, expansive, lifted finish, with its hint of salt in the endnote. As I penned after tasting a barrel sample, this is a new level of quality at Beau-Sejour Becot that embraces less volume, but more intensity, and purity in the fruit. With their new cellars about to come into use, you are looking at a new level of Beau-Sejour Becot! Drink from 2025-2055.