Figeac 2000 demoted

I was reading in Decanter, this morning that Figeac was demoted from 93 points to 85 by King Parker? Anyone try this recently? There must be something going on for it to be demoted by that many points.

Well it’s one of my favorite Bordeaux so it makes sense.

What vintage?

2000

Lyle, is there anything questionable about it? Compared to other vintages?

awesome…i am even more satisfied as I have 3 bottles of the 2000!

Higher percentage of Cab Franc…done in a lean-austere traditional style, needs years to come around. Good to see that Bob is demoting wines 10 years after the vintage, when traditional Bordeaux, not the spoofed up he waxes about, is usually closed. Don’t think he remembers what a real Bordeaux tastes like so demote it!

Honesty is ideal and laudable. Perhaps, things over there are turning for the better.

goes to show you that now a winery that uses traditional methods are being demoted for these techniques. Who would have thought it?

85 je suis, 93 je fus, Figeac ne change.

Aside from the personal jabs here, I have found this wine very recently to be very good. It did have a green streak, but that quickly blew off. I’d have to search my TN’s, but IIRC I gave it 91 points or so. I have another one and am happy to have it. Anyone who wants to give theirs up because of the low rating, I am happy to take theirs from them.

that’s pretty good.

If its true, it also illustrates how “imaginary” (imprecise? Not sure what word works best) scores are, and not the “set in stone” DNA type scores people often imagine a wine possesses when annointed with a number.

now we just need prices to come down due to the “new” score…

From the header I thought you meant it had ACTUALLY been demoted as in demoted in the classification system. A score is not a promotion or a demotion, this is a downgrading, no?

Tasted it once in 2004, was happy to have 6 bottles, bought 3 more. Tasted it a second time and bought 3 more… I haven’t tried it in a while, but that makes me want to open one soon. Hopefully it will lead me to buy 3 more bottles yet again

Money quote from Uncle Bob: “Of course, there are those who would defend this wine as a quintessentially elegant, old-style, classic wine, but dilution is dilution, vegetal is vegetal, and the wine frankly lacks concentration and is a major disappointment.”

so let me get this straight:

traditional style = disappointment.?

I must admit that I was surprised RP gave the 2000 such a lofty rating in the first place. I have some experience with this chateau back to 79 (probably 12 or 13 vintages since) and I always find Figeac to have a green tobacco note more common to Graves. It has a whack of the cabernets (35%/35% roughly with 30% merLOT) relative to most St. Emilions and, frankly, always tastes more like a Graves to me than a typical St. Emilion. For me the 2000 was not a fleshy, textured or opulent (if you will) wine. I remember finding Parker’s original tasting note quite at odds with my take on the wine … that caused me concern … his recent note (at least the snippet I read here) is far more in line with my original take on the wine. I liked the wine but, have not had it for 4 or 5 years. I like the house and have been pleasantly surprised by older vintages (85 and 79 if my memory serves) that I don’t recall getting all that great a rating from RP.

Retailers now need to put this wine on a mailer as a super blowout special with the new rating!!!

fail. I wonder if he is getting like grandpa was: losing sense of taste so could only taste really strong flavors

Mike, now that a lot of 1988-1990 era wines have some age on them, I have been going back and tasting them. I think this has been going on for a very long time. It is more obvious now given how many chateaux have made dramatic changes, and the relative scoring of those who did and those who didn’t.

PS- Hard to “blame” Parker for this. He has always been very up front about what matters to him and it is easy to translate his TNs into one’s own personal preferences. If the “new way” is what most drinkers really want- then that is life. However if down the road most drinkers discover this is not what they want, then it is the collective fault of much of the wine-buying public for not tasting for themselves at release (and Parker himself makes a great point of stating frequently there is no substitute for a buyer’s own tasting experience in making a purchase decision.)

Wow. I hope this is just a matter of a couple of bad bottles or that it is more classic Bordeaux than RP prefers. I bought a case on his score. I know, I know!