Chateau Figeac 2003, St. Emilion
10th May 2008
Last week I discussed a winery that has been in business for about 10 years. This week’s was founded over 1800 years ago. Château Figeac is by far the oldest property of St Emilion, in Bordeaux. It was originally called the Figeacus estate, and its early history is veiled in fog.
We do not know when its owners first grew wine. In 92 AD the Emperor Domitian issued an edict prohibiting the planting of new vines, and this remained in force until 212. But it is not clear how strictly the edict was enforced outside Italy.
The name too is mysterious. “Figeacus” may be the family name of the estate’s first owners, but it may also be a corruption of ficus, meaning “fig-tree”. The Romans did not grow figs near grapes, believing they tainted the odour of wine. If figs were the estate’s original crop, its winegrowing probably began later.
And what of the wine? Two ancient authorities, Pliny the Elder and Columella, mention a grape from this area called Biturica. They say its wine was good, though of the second rank. Now, in Bordeaux the local name for Cabernet Sauvignon is Vidure. Are Biturica and Vidure the same grape? Quite possibly. And it would be pleasant to think that the same property has been making the same wine for eighteen centuries.
At any rate, the Figeacus estate was very large, and bit by bit sections of it were sold off from the middle ages onwards. One part became the Cheval Blanc property. Other parts kept the name “Figeac” somewhere in their titles, as reminders of their origins: Yon-Figeac is one such, La Tour du Pin Figeac-Moueix another.
But there is only one Château Figeac. It is unusual among St Emilions in containing a substantial amount of Cabernet Sauvignon (Cheval Blanc, by contrast, is made up mostly of Cabernet Franc). Some people have voiced doubts about the 2003 vintage; I think they need their heads examined. This wine is an unalloyed treat. Its fragrances remind me of rose petals and lavender, its flavours of Christmas cake and dark chocolate. The long, long finish recalls the sweetest pipe tobacco. Around £40 in the UK, $80 in the US.
