Hello everybody, 1 1/2 year ago many of us eagerly awaited the futures campaign of the 2022 vintage in Bordeaux. While the wines were universally praised by those who tasted these early barrel samples, there seemed to be a lack of excitement among buyers due to another round of raised prices and the opportunity to earn a good risk free interest on your money while waiting for the delivery.
I belong to those who have waited and now with the wines being bottled and hitting the market (here in Europe at least) I wonder if it is now time to start buying and lock in prices which seem mostly unchanged since the days of the campaign.
What do those of you think, who have tasted the wines recently? Do they live up to their early promise or have even improved during elevage? How does 2022 compare to other great vintages of the recent past, in particular the solar ones like 2019 and 2020, which are still widely available.
They won’t stop talking about the quality of the 2022 in Bordeaux. The few I have tasted are certainly showing promise. I agree with you that they are pricey.
The yield was quite small. In coming years, they will be difficult to find.
Having started this thread a week ago with limited response (however, thank you, Stefan, for chiming in), I had the opportunity to attend a tasting of some 2022 Bordeaux wines yesterday. The tasting took place in Luxembourg and was hosted by a luxembourgish supermarket which has a nice wine club and offers pretty good tastings for its members. The tasting focused on medium and lower tier crus classés and reputable cru bourgeois, but with Haut Bailly, Pape Clement, Pontet Canet and Clinet a handful of bigger guns were also included. As it was a casual walk-around-tasting my impressions on single wines are limited, however, I want to share some basic impressions about the vintage and opine on a couple of wines.
Overall 2022 is an impressive vintage, but I would approach it with caution as it may well not be up to your preference of a Bordeaux wine. Having tasted Bordeaux vintages casually since the 2005 vintage, I’d say that 2022 could be, along with 2010, the richest of them all. Many wines are downright explosive in the mouth and tower not only the same wine from 2021 but also 2020 (which were often served alongside - great service!). And these wines are tannic, oof, my mouth and teeth were oftentimes left numb and I was in need of serious amounts of water. But these wines are different animals than those from 2010. Winemaking has come a long way (one might question if the direction is right, but that is another topic). The colours are generally less dense and inky and the wines, while tannic, are not overpowered by harsh woodspices, instead the tannin is sandlike and feels as if it mainly comes from the berries. So far so good, but why approach these wines with caution? It probably comes down to my personal preference, but rather often I found wines being too alcoholic and sweet and lacking in definition and freshness. However, one sales representative said, that her wines could still be compromised after being bottled only in May and then being shipped to Luxembourg. I don’t know.
On to some single wines:
My wine of the tasting was Chateau Talbot (13,5 ABV). Nothing overdone here, on the contrary the chateau seems to have extracted only the best which the vintage offered. Dark and dense colour, serious aromatic depth and structure, drier than many. Reminded me of Leoville Barton from good vintages. A classic!
Then there is Pontet Canet, which left me perplexed. Maybe this is still work in progress. However, what was in my glass at this point in time could not convince me. There is Pauillac terroir visible with notes of truffles, there is a richness of dark fruits, but the wine felt notably hot and just too soft. Pontet Canet was the only chateau, where I firmly preferred the 2021 to the 2022. In fact, the 2021 is a seriously good wine here which rises above the limitations of the vintage with ripe fruit and serious impact. The 2020, which shows both strength and balance, beats both of them and is an excellent wine in my book.
Two wines with superb QPR were Clos Manou (14,5 ABV) and La Tour Carnet (14,0 ABV). The first being incredibly rich and delivering an experience which you don’t find among Medoc Cru Bourgeois, but blessed with an acidity that the Pontet Canet seemd to be lacking. The La Tour Carnet showed a bit more restraint, but it also refrains from modern soft extraction techniques. This is still a dark, structured and rich wine, but in contrast to vintages like 2010 it shows better balance with also some red fruits mixed into the blend. Call me a fan, I will buy this wine.
Pape Clement followed on the heels and is an excellent wine in 2022. More refined and red-fruited than La Tour Carnet, as you would expect. Not oaky, which surprised me a bit. What was lacking at this early stage was a Graves Signature, but I am optimistic on this wine. It marries intensity with freshness and shows very good balance.
Haut Bailly (14,5 ABV) was difficult to read, lots of stuffing, but brooding. I liked the 2021 here, perfumed and good balance.
Malartic La Graviere (14,0 AVB) was nice, but a bit generic. The same could be said about Malescot Saint Exupery but overall still a better wine, really nothing wrong with this one.
Giscours was again difficult to read. I missed some definition.
Lagrange was very good with the only fault of being served next to the Talbot. Lagrange 2022 has no hair out of place, is already an expressive wine, but it also has a lighter touch than Talbot and in this case gives me less Medoc vibes. I also liked the 2021 here.
Chasse Spleen which is a perennial favourite of mine was a bit of a letdown with also having too light a touch. I have come to like Chasse Spleen as a sometimes sturdy but always serious wine, this here was too easy for my preference.
Lafon Rochet on the other hand was a wine, which I really liked. 2020 was already a great and classically proportioned vintage for this chateau and it proved it again. 2021 is lighter but the balance is there. 2022 beats 2020 in sheer intensity, but it does not cross the border. Beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon typicity with even a slight touch of bellpepper despite the ripe vintage. I can imagine this becoming rather classic with a couple of years in the cellar.
I often struggle with Phelan Segur and again here. While more red-fruited than the preceding Lafon Rochet, the fruit also had a slightly honeyed quality and the wine lacked some definition.
Having my issues with some of the leftbankers for being too ripe and/or generic my expectations for the four wines from the right bank, which I tasted, were low. In the case of La Gaffeliere and Clinet these were unfounded and I liked both wines very much. La Gaffeliere is a vin de terroir with truffle scents even at this early stage and (thanks to its 40% Cab Franc) it also has good freshness and overall feels very leftbankish. Not drinking much St. Emilion I can see me liking this wine! Clinet (14,0 ABV) did not show such a terroir imprint to me, however, it shined with its beautiful fruit and really impeccable mouthfeel. Somehow a “modern” wine, but I admire its balance in this extreme vintage (including 20% Cab Sauv from the 1950s).
La Dominique (15,0 ABV) and Grand Corbin Despagne (15,0 ABV) fitted more into my cliché of right bank wines in a hot vintage. Not my cup of tea.
While I am aware that my sample size was very limited I still feel glad about this early look at the vintage. Those of us, who did not buy en primeur may have been right in doing so. I will buy a couple of bottles soon as the vintage is singular and I see myself wanting such an explosive Bordeaux from time to time. But I will test every wine before going deep.
Cheers!
Thanks so much for this info!
Fantastic observations and notes!
Thanks for posting such fascinating impressions, Eric - great job. I’m jealous - that’s the sort of tasting my local supermarkets used to organise!
It may be a limited sample size but for me it seems large enough to get a first idea of the vintage in bottle, especially since you were sometimes able to directly compare them with 2020 and 2021.
I’m curious as to the prices - were these up or down on EP (generally speaking)? Apart from the issues about the power and style that you mention, it’ll be interesting to follow the trajectory of the 2022 prices over the next few years as the EP prices were often rather high. I’m not in the market for them as I’m, well, too old!
As to the wines themselves, I found your comments about the two from the Magrez stable very interesting indeed - I had given up on them a very long time ago - obviously the style has evolved, which is great.
Interesting too that Talbot should come out top - with a relatively modest ABV.
As for Lafon-Rochet, well for me that’s one of the most underrated addresses around. I suppose that eventually more people will cotton on, but in the meantime, great value for money, although whether or not to buy now or wait until it appears at auction is perhaps a conundrum.
Thanks again!
Thank you, Eric for your great report.
It’s difficult to divorce the 2022 vintage from its absurd pricing. This is truly the vintage that jumped the shark. If you look back at the many threads on this board, it shows that there are few reasons to buy futures, and how over a long period of time, only a few vintages make any kind of sense financially. So what the Bordelaise did for the 2022s bordered on insanity, and for once it is unlikely to be rectified in the short or even the medium term.
Even now, I’m able to buy Haut Brion 2020 for $375 while 2022 with one exception is well over $550.
2022 follows several exceptional vintages, Wine cellars are full, and in the current economic malaise, they will be very difficult to sell, and it will be hard to reduce prices to 2023 levels, without annoying the trade who did buy. I am afraid, even though the quality may be high, it is a vintage that will languish in the warehouses in Bordeaux for a while.
Thank you all for your kind words!
@Julian_Marshall The prices here were the same as en primeur. In this case I would say a missed chance, but I guess they are not willing to book losses so early. As Mark has said the 2022 will be a tough sell with plenty of other good vintages still around and cheaper 2023s coming.
And yes, you might want to give the Magrez wines a second look. Their bottles are heavy and overstyled, but La Tour Carnet ranks among my favourite QPR year in, year out. They have dialed down extraction a couple of years ago and 2019, 2020 and 2022 have all turned out very nice. These are not complex or elegant wines, but they taste northern Medoc to me, flavourful, robust and dry. I also like Pape Clement.
@Mark_Golodetz It is interesting to hear - not for the first time - that Bordeaux is sold cheaper in the States than over here in Europe. $375 for Haut Brion 2020 sounds amazing. I did a quick research in Germany and the cheapest that I have come up with are € 550.
I agree with you that the 2022 have debuted too expensive and that basically killed the campaign. However, price increases of 10 - 20% don’t matter that much for the wines, which always have good QPR, I think about Branaire Ducru, Ferriere, Lafon Rochet and many others. Here the vintage makes sense to me. You get a special wine, which costs you $60 instead of $50 or $50 instead of $40 in other vintages. I am fine with that.
Good job on your comments Eric. Yes, it’s a rich, opulent vintage, but it’s also balanced and vibrant. I’m a huge fan of 2022. I love the vintage, from top to bottom. The style hits all the right notes, and this is after tasting over 700 wines.
It’s not a style that many on this board are going to be into, but I love them! You can peruse my notes if you’re interested …
Hi Jeff, thank you for your kind words. I did read your notes from barrel last year with great interest and look forward to your in-bottle-scores!
Yes, as a regular reader of this board I can imagine that the vintage in general will not appeal to everybody here. It is a more divisive vintage than 2016 or 2005 was back in the days.
I am very curious how the reputation will develop when more people have had the chance to taste the wines.
I should start digging into the wines just after Thanksgiving. My guess is, the tasters, critics thst liked the wines, will love them. If I was younger, I’d be all over them. And you don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy great wines, from top to bottom, you will find gems.
As far as the board, I’m not sure my friend Alfret and numerous others are going to rush out and buy any wines.
Very useful info in these well written notes, Eric. Thank you.