Château Beau-Séjour Bécot Winery

Founded in the Middle Ages by the Order of St Martin and acquired by Michel Bécot in 1969, the wine estate has seen many changes. But today, the wines of Beau-Séjour Bécot are better than ever.

The Château Beau-Séjour Bécot vineyard is part of the historic Domaine Beauséjour, which originally included the vineyards of today's Château Beauséjour (Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse). The estate, with its 17.5 hectares of vines, was elevated to "1er Grand Cru Classé" in 1955 and acquired in 1969 by Michel Bécot, whose family had been growing vines in Castillon for a long time. in 1985, he handed the estate over to his sons Gérard and Dominique. Just one year later, the vineyard was elevated to the rank of Grand Cru Classé.

The Bécots engaged Michel Rolland as a consultant, who became a close friend of the family over time. in 1996, the estate was promoted to "1er Grand Cru Classé B" again.

a new generation followed in 2016 with Juliette Bécot, Gérard's daughter, who steered the estate in a different direction. Nothing is rushed at Beau-Séjour Bécot; instead, decisions are made in consultation with the family and the team. This special atmosphere is also reflected in the fact that almost everyone who works for the winery lives in or around the château and has often been employed there for decades.

Nevertheless, it was important to Juliette to return from the more concentrated, typical Rolland style to a finer style that Juliette favours. To this end, the proportion of Cabernet Franc in the wines was increased, the grapes were harvested earlier and the wines were gradually matured exclusively in modern, tapered concrete fermenters in order to refine the extraction. The 22% Cabernet Franc contained in the wines today does the rest to give the wines of this top wine estate an unprecedented finesse.

photos: Château Beau-Séjour Bécot