Closing the books on the great 2022 Bordeaux vintage
It was Gonzague Lurton at Durfort-Vivens who really crystallised 2022 Bordeaux for me. ‘It was my 31st vintage, but the first one in which the fruit did not come out the way I expected’. Up and down the region, vignerons told us the same story of delighted surprise. After the hot, dry growing season everyone was wary of jammy, baked fruit. But when they got the juice into the vats, they were astonished to discover that acidity levels were good, and the musts were as fresh as they were concentrated. Nobody is still entirely sure how this happened: the best explanation I have heard is that the freshness and energy is a knock-on effect from the cool, damp 2021 growing season. But the fact of the matter is, 2022 is a genuinely great Bordeaux vintage.
Some eye-watering price increases at certain top properties have hogged the headlines. But Bordeaux is a huge region with many chateaux, and most of them can’t get away with anything like that sort of price increase. At Grand Mayne, Jean-Antoine Nony told us that 2022 marked the first time in 10 years he’d felt able to increase his release price, and that was only by a few euros. There is a lot of value to be found at some great addresses. With this in mind, and the campaign now over except for Le Pin, we’ve put together a list by commune of some excellent 2022s which won’t break the bank.
In fact, crunching the numbers and adjusting for inflation, the wines below which we can directly compare are on average 6% cheaper than their equivalents from the equally great 2010 vintage (Tronquoy, Saint-Pierre and Malartic-Lagraviere are all fewer pounds now than they were back then). And Bordeaux has moved on a lot since then. The region may have a conservative image, but when it comes to winemaking, things are developing fast. Modern best practice in the vineyard and the cellar, and the increasing adoption of biodynamics, means many of these properties are better than they ever have been. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment Spring 2025
