I was in Burgundy last week and a few people asked me to post some thoughts, so this thread feels like the right place given that I tasted a lot of 2022s. I’m not a fan of writing travelogues (which is a strictly personal opinion, not trying to stop anyone else), but if you have any specific questions, PMs are open 
- As always, all opinions free or your money back.
- I am not a wine critic and do not pretend to be one, so if you disagree with my thoughts or think a wine critic said something else is right, that’s cool!
- Barrel tasting is hard, and it’s a learned skill. I think doing it well requires both a good palate and a lot of experience with the specific wine to understand how it shows and where it may go. Which is also why I don’t write tasting notes on what is essentially unfinished wine (what a barrel sample really is).
With all the throat clearing out of the way:
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Most of what I tasted were 2022s in bottle, often because quantities are very large (which everyone is happy about), so everyone was happy to pour the range. 2022 is generally a good vintage. There were only a few wines I tried that I didn’t like and, in a few cases, the wines were better than I expected them to be based on barrel tastings last year (barrel samples!). In a few cases in particular, the reds were a bit fresher than they seemed in barrel last year. Whether that’s due to chaptalization or other things people did in the cellar, I don’t know. Probably my tasting skills
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That said, 2022 is, for me, one of the most heterogeneous vintages I’ve ever tasted, especially for whites. The whites are, again, pretty good, but very different across different Domaines. At some Domaines the wines were more incisive, while at others they were more generous and more reflective of a warmer vintage. What was also notable is how producers discussed the vintage – almost every producer viewed the vintage and its challenges differently; some saw it as a continuation of the warm vintages of 18, 19 and 20, others saw it as a challenging growing season, while others saw it as a challenge distinct from a “warm vintage” paradigm. I don’t think it’s as good as 2020, which remains to me the best vintage this century for white Burgundy in the Cote d’Or (not in Chablis).
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I think the reds are also somewhat heterogeneous, but less so. Again, producers discussed the vintages differently – some saw the vintage as a continuation of previous warm vintages, some saw them as somewhat sui generis. To me, the wines felt somewhat more reflective of terroir – the tastings in Morey felt more Morey, Gevrey more Gevrey, etc., but that’s obviously a personal view and I wasn’t exactly doing visits blind! It’s a more charming fresher vintage given the weather, so maybe a combination of 19 (itself a rather warm vintage!) and 17. I don’t think it’s as good as 19, but there will certainly be some very good wines. I thought the Volnays I tasted were particularly charming, but this continues to be a theme in these warm vintages; as a famous producer said at dinner a few years back, global warming is helping them make better wines in Volnay (and making it easier to do so).
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Taking this back to the title of the thread, what I tasted won’t affect my buying too much, though it will cause me to buy a few extra bottles of a few things I especially liked. This isn’t like 2021 which I thought was a particularly tough vintage for whites, for example and a much more heterogeneous one in quality (rather than style) for reds.
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That said, the pricing; there are now some very interesting discussions being had on that front in Burgundy, and the pricing on some of the wines in 2022 will certainly make some purchasing decisions easier, especially for people buying in the US. While some producers are moving prices down a bit or keeping them stable, some are moving in the other direction (sometimes aggressively). Some distributors, stores and agents are now seeing a lot more softness in the market than they let on publicly, even for some surprising names. So, we’ll see! One thing that’s certain is that some of the more natural leaning micro-negociants are now very available at declining prices; if that happens to some of the conventional unicorn producers remains to be seen.
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I also tasted quite a bit of 2023 in barrel – it will be a bigger vintage than 2022; not necessarily more tannic, but riper and richer. Again, a lot will depend on who producers handled the vintage. For the best producers, I expect they will producer a richer vintage (to me resembling 2015, perhaps), though in less attentive hands the wines could be headed more towards 2018. But I am not a believer that climate/weather is destiny, and I certainly tasted some very exciting 2023s in barrel that I’m really looking forward to drinking.
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Overall, I would say that as the weather becomes less predictable, there seems to be less homogeneity among producers, perhaps because producers have fewer “standard practices” to fall back on. When every vintage is similar to 2003, which was once a once in a lifetime event to many producers 20 years ago, producers can’t treat such vintages as outliers and are developing their own techniques to deal with such vintages as they become more typical. Some openly talked about trying new things within the past 6 years (both in the vineyards and the cellars), whereas others seem somewhat comfortable where they are. It also means very different views on how early to pick, how to farm, etc. Interesting times ahead, and different producers are more optimistic/pessimistic about the effects of climate change, which is quite interesting.