After seeing multiple 2022 Bordeaux tasting notes from @Martin_Zwick, I got a bit curious. I was hard-pressed to believe the top wines were drinking this well. Curiosity got the better of me, so after opening a Chateau de Pez earlier in the week. I decided to open this and it did not disappoint. I have never had a young Bordeaux, particularly one of this caliber, that drank so well upon release. Most have tannins or something that needs to get resolved. The tannins are almost always off-putting to me and very drying.
I didn’t even need to put this into a decanter. Upon opening, the nose revealed little. I got a bit nervous that I’d made a mistake and was about to decant it, but tasted it first and it was really incredible. Pretty black cherry, plums, cassis, pencil shavings, and wonderful tobacco notes with a great mineral streak that runs through the wine. Incredibly long finish that keeps you coming back for more. The craziest thing to me are the tannins - they are hardly even noticeable and there is such wonderful freshness and acidity. It combines power and freshness in such an awesome way. Just can’t believe how seamless everything is right now. I would have never opened this had it not been for these tasting notes and I don’t regret it all. If anything, I’ll probably grab more. Really awesome stuff.
Fascinating.
I wonder if that portends less aging potential, I guess we won’t really know until way down the road.
So what is it about the 2022 vintage which permits such easy early drinking?
It might fall apart before age 100.
HAPPY, I am not a wrong-way driver „Geisterfahrer“.
Having the same experience with 2019s as well.
I’ll probably fall apart before 75
Really? That is also surprising to me
Abundant but very high quality tannins; above-average pH; unusual sweetness of fruit; and, generally speaking more reductive and precise winemaking and bottling practices that retain more of that fruit immediately after bottling.
Thanks!
@William_Kelley In addition to what you mentioned, were successful producers using less (or no) press wine in 2022? Wonder if that free run juice was plump enough.
I opened a 2022 Tronquoy over several days and it started out just as good as it finished. Just the most intense fruit, color, and concentration. Nothing harsh at all (St. Estephe!). It was somewhat ethereal.
2022’s are just so different generally from 2019/2020 which are much closer together structurally.
“High quality tannins” is the critical factor in my opinion.
There are various different strategies with press wine, which are related to extraction strategies, so the percentage employed is per se not hugely meaningful.