Figeac 2016 & the Frost-Giant Duel: Bacchus’s Moonlit Clash That Keeps Beating the Bordeaux 500
An ice colossus tried to freeze Saint-Émilion, Bacchus answered with molten lightning - and the energy forged that night is still compounding in savvy cellars.
The untold struggle
Late winter 2016. Buds had only begun to swell when Krios, the Frost Giant, lumbered south to entomb every vine in crystal. I, Bacchus, sprang from a silent barrel, ivy-staff fizzing green lightning. Axe met vine, ice met sap. At the duel’s zenith I drove a shard of Krios’s own crystal into Figeac’s gravel-clay and fused it with searing ferment heat. The giant shattered, groundwater rushed back through the roots, and the vines pulsed like live wires. Grapes born of that night - 38 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 36 percent Merlot, 26 percent Cabernet Franc - spun in the vats like miniature cyclones. Swirl the 2016 today and that clash still crackles at the rim.
Momentum in the marketplace
The wine debuted in June 2017 at €150 ex-négociant, 47 percent above the 2015 release. By 2025 the global mean price hovers near $286, with many U.S. offers at $300-350, translating to roughly 80-110 percent appreciation in under eight years, depending on the listing you track. Its solo promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classé A in 2022 poured fuel on the market, and Liv-ex data shows Figeac vaulting into the most-traded Right-Bank names since the upgrade.
Quality tempered in ice and fire
The season flipped from a soggy spring to the driest Bordeaux summer since 1893, then welcomed perfectly timed September showers - ideal conditions for phenolic ripeness. Critics responded with near-perfect salvos: 98-100 Wine Advocate, 99 James Suckling, 98+ Jeb Dunnuck. High, silk-fine tannins and medium-plus acidity set a glide path from 2026 well into the 2040s.
Why the legend still pays
Supply is thinning as pristine OWC cases vanish, and the wine’s 64 percent Cabernet backbone gives it crossover magnetism for both banks of Bordeaux. Liquidity on Liv-ex stays brisk, so exits rarely require heroics. Short-term prices may pause after the upgrade surge, and macro jolts can shake even fine-wine indices, yet the long runway and deep buyer pool keep the odds tilted toward steady upward drift.
Bacchus’s streamlined battle plan
Slip in quietly during 2025-27 whenever sub-$290 in-bond lots appear. Release about a third when the early-drinking glow arrives around 2029-30. Let the rest ride dwindling supply into the 2030s, then decide whether to cash out or pour liquid legend at your own frost-themed feast.
