The 2019 Château Figeac checks in as 36% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 30% Merlot, and it's another brilliant wine from Frédéric Faye. This deep purple-hued effort offers a beautiful Pauillac-like bouquet of ripe black cherries, cassis, damp earth, leafy herbs, chocolate, and smoked tobacco. It has classic Figeac herbal, earthy goodness (no doubt due to its high percentage of Cabernet) and is medium to full-bodied on the palate, has perfect tannins and flawless balance, all making for a brilliant Saint-Emilion that brings richness and power paired with finesse and elegance. Give bottles 4-5 years, count yourself lucky, and enjoy over the following 30+.

The 2019 Figeac was picked from 13 September to 7 October, a total of 4 weeks picking. There is a little more emphasis on the Cabernet Franc this year - 36% of the blend. It is quintessential Figeac on the nose, that is to say that the enticing mélange of Merlot and Cabernet together creates more than a sum of their parts. Here the blackberry, crushed stone and graphite elements are seamlessly enmeshed with the more ravishing red fruit aspects delivered by the ripe Merlot. It is exquisitely defined. The palate is medium-bodied. First impressions are of a Figeac that leans more to the Cabernet/Left Bank side of its personality, quite structured with black fruit dominating, saline and marine-influenced. The Merlot really comes through towards the close delivering that almost clinical mineral-driven finish. Winemaker Frédéric Faye and his team have conjured a deeply impressive, intellectual Figeac this years, amongst the canon of greats that stretch back to the 1940s.

The 2019 Figeac has turned out brilliantly. Wafting from the glass with aromas of blackberries, cassis, warm spices, violets and pencil shavings, framed by a deft touch of nicely integrated new oak, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with terrific depth at the core, powdery structuring tannins and lively acids, concluding with a long, precise finish. Rich but vibrant, this 2019 reflects the new precision that Frédéric Faye has brought to Figeac; but while it's richer and more polished than the wines of yesteryear, the estate's identity hasn't been lost.