Château Figeac: The Great Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Born from the Right Bank's Gravel Soils

The inauguration of a new semi-underground winery in 2021 marked a major milestone in the evolution of Château Figeac’s winemaking facilities. Designed to enable parcel-by-parcel vinification, the winery allows grapes from the estate’s three gravel rises—L’Enfer, La Terrasse, and Les Moulins—as well as its three grape varieties, to be vinified separately. This parcel-based approach builds upon the extensive work carried out on Figeac’s unique Günzian gravel terroir, giving the winemaking team a deeper understanding of each individual plot before the final blend is assembled. On Bordeaux’s Right Bank, where the relatively small size of vineyard parcels often makes this level of precision difficult to achieve, the new winery reflects the estate’s commitment to combining respect for terroir with technical excellence, continuing the standards of quality upheld by the Manoncourt family for more than a century.

The history of Château Figeac is inseparable from that of the Manoncourt family, who have owned the estate since 1892. Awarded the rank of Premier Grand Cru Classé B in the inaugural 1955 Saint-Émilion classification, the estate spent nearly seven decades under this designation, refining the distinctive style and expertise that would become its hallmark. It was during this period that Thierry Manoncourt, who led the property until his passing in 2010, made the bold decision to place the Cabernet varieties at the heart of the blend, defying the prevailing practices of Bordeaux’s Right Bank and laying the foundations for an identity centered on the expression of its exceptional gravel terroir.