Bordeaux 2022 Vintage Report: Fresh Spin on a Hot Year

1919 TASTING NOTES
Thursday, Feb 06, 2025

Left: James and Guillaume Pouthier of Les Carmes Haut-Brion looking at century-old vines of cabernet franc at the Les Carmes estate. | Right: Chateau Margaux, on Bordeaux's Left Bank, which made the full-bodied and structured Château Margaux Margaux 2022.

It wasn’t that long ago that Guillaume Pouthier, the managing director of fashionable Pessac-Leognan estate Chateau Les Carmes Haut-Brion, was more than raising a few eyebrows in tradition-bound Bordeaux when he began using a small percentage of whole bunches in his fermentations. He was hoping to make a fresher Bordeaux that was easier to drink young and showed a distinctive character compared with the offerings made by his neighbors and peers.

Today, he ferments with about 40 percent or more whole bunches and he is considering using more. And Les Carmes is one of the darlings of contemporary Bordeaux, making some of the most attractive high-end reds in the region, each of which exhibits a unique personality and vivid expression.

Whole bunches are commonplace in winemaking, especially with such grape varieties as pinot noir, but some winemakers in Bordeaux are turning to the method to give their cabernet sauvignons and cabernet francs a fresher and more vibrant character, especially in hot and dry grape-growing seasons such as the region’s most recent year in bottle, 2022. Some say whole-cluster fermentations and maceration even reduce the alcohol in a wine, which could have been a godsend in such a hot and dry year.

The notion of freshness from whole-bunch fermentations and other methods were key to maintaining wine quality in 2022. The growing season was reminiscent of the 2003 vintage, which arguably set the tone for this century’s arid grape-growing summers with periods of drought, blistering temperatures often over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and blinding sunshine. 2003 made lots of high-octane wines, many of which are now beginning to fade.

Likewise, 2022 in Bordeaux produced many wines with high alcohol, low acidity and rich fruit, according to our tastings of almost 2,000 wines over the past few months. Yet many of the wines we tasted showed a sense of freshness even though analytically they have weak acidity.

Some wines, even some from coveted names, have pHs (strength of acidity) pushing 4, which means low acidity and wines that enologically can be susceptible to spoilage and reduced longevity.

“This could be a problem, but the best producers worked impeccably in the cellars in 2022 in Bordeaux,” said one consulting winemaker who wished to remain anonymous. “So, I don’t think this is a problem."

Pouthier holds the Château Les Carmes-Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan 2022, which James praised for its purity and focus.
The tower of Chateau Latour estate in Pauillac.

Indeed, during a 10-day trip to Bordeaux in early January with one of my senior editors, Zekun Shuai, I was extremely impressed with how so many of the wines showed brightness and intensity despite many weighing in at over 15 percent alcohol with pHs of 3.8 or higher. They had a clarity, particularly in aromas, and a precision in the palate that gave a notion of levity and freshness, even though chemically this may not be the case. And this was across the board – from revered names to unknown labels.

“It is a new profile for Bordeaux,” said Pierre-Olivier Clouet, the managing director of Chateau Cheval Blanc. “We have the best of two worlds – of the New World and the Old World, or classical wines and modern wines. Texture is velvety without the big and sweet and fat thing on the palate, but then you have the purity of the fruit and freshness of the fruit and a touch of herbs at the end. It’s dynamic.”

We tasted close to 400 wines from 2022 in Bordeaux during our time there, visiting nearly 50 wineries and interviewing even more winemakers and vintners, and everyone seemed almost surprised by the lively character of their wines. They were equally impressed in April 2023 when I rated more than 1,200 wines from barrel, citing their vines’ ability to adapt to the extreme weather during the boiling summer as well as the lively and vivid wines they made.

READ MORE EN PRIMEUR 2023 (PART I): A RETURN TO BORDEAUX

James talks with Chateau Cheval Blanc technical director Pierre Olivier Clouet about their 2022 wines.
The Vieux Château Certan Pomerol 2022 is full-bodied with fine tannins that spread out across the palate.
The Le Pin Pomerol 2022 shows purity of fruit with energy and focus.
Zekun (right) tastes with Lafaurie-Peyraguey owner Silvio Denz (left) and winemaker Vincent Cruege, who made a 100-point Sauternes with incredible richness and power.

“It’s a slight mystery where the freshness comes from in most of the 2022s. I think it came from the fruit, but for our wines, our winemaking brought this out,” said Pouthier of Les Carmes-Haut-Brion, referring to whole-bunch fermentations. “It gave such purity and high quality of tannins. We did not need to extract to get tannins.”

He added: “If we made wines in 2022 like we did 15 years ago, the wines would have been much more extracted with more fruit and dried tannins. We did the most we could to maintain the quality of the fruit. We wanted to be more and more delicate in our winemaking, so we have a real purity and identity in our wines in 2022.”

It didn’t seem like many winemakers overworked their wines in their cellars in 2022. This was something I found in many wines in 2003, the last vintage in Bordeaux with epic heat. At least, that was what we thought from tasting hundreds of wines in the dozens of chateaus a few weeks ago. If wines were heavy or slightly ponderous, it would most likely have been a question of dehydration of grapes or picking too late, which resulted in wines with high alcohol and a slightly jammy character. Even then, many wines showed a balanced and brightness in our tastings.

READ MORE BORDEAUX EN PRIMEUR 2023 (PART II): A VINTAGE TO LOVE, BUT AT WHAT PRICE?

Wines aging in the ancient limestone cellars of Clos Fourtet.

DE-EMPHASIZING WOOD

Winemakers were obviously very careful and delicate in their cellars, being sure not to overextract tannins or use too much wood. New wood barrels were much less used, with some insightful winemakers utilizing large wood casks, amphora and other inert vessels for aging their wines.

Zekun and I often looked at one another in disbelief after tasting a wine that seemed aromatically perfumed and in harmonious on the palate, yet the back label of the bottle read 15 percent or 15.5 percent alcohol.

Most of the dozens of winemakers I interviewed during our tasting trip said the relative balance in their wines was because of all their hard work in vineyards. Many said it was a question of doing less to the vines to assure good leaf canopy coverage of the fruit to reduce sun exposure and keeping dry cover crops for the soils to maintain whatever minute amount of moisture was available. A serious selection of grapes was also essential during the harvest, both in the vineyard and on sorting tables. They needed to eliminate dehydrated or raisiny grapes and focus on good fruit to be fermented.

Jean-Hubert Delon (left), owner of Chateau Leoville Las Cases, and his son, Arnaud, made one of the wines of the 2022 vintage.
The estate of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux.

“If you compare this vintage to others after hot years like 2003, you would cry thinking about all the work we did to make excellent wines,” said Jean-Hubert Delon, the owner of Chateau Leoville Las Cases, which made one of the wines of the vintage that we rated 100 points. “The work has been all the improvements over the years in our vineyards, our terroir. As well as the experience of past hot and dry years.”

Just in the last decade, Bordeaux winemakers have had no less than six hot and dry vintages, including 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. When I started tasting in Bordeaux in the early 1980s, it was the complete opposite. The majority of vintages in a decade were cool and wet for the most part and winemakers were doing everything possible to harvest ripe grapes.

Fabien Teitgen, the estate director of Smith-Haut-Lafitte, which also owns Cathiard Vineyard in Napa Valley, said they “had to protect the fruit in 2022 like we were in Napa. We had to do all we could do to protect the bunches and keep the water. The vines’ roots are very deep, and they can find the water in such a hot year. It was really challenging. It was a fight to protect the fruit.”

James stands in front of the sign at Chateau Pavie Macquin, in the Saint-Emilion appellation of Bordeaux.
Emmanuel Cruse, co-owner of Chateau d’Issan, holds his "luxurious" Château d'Issan Margaux 2022.
James tastes the latest Chateau Latour releases with CEO Frederic Engerer.

From our tastings, it was obvious that some places fared better in protecting their fruit than others, and cabernet sauvignon was clearly less affected by the tumultuous heat than merlot or even cabernet franc. Bordeaux’s Northen Medoc area easily made the most consistent high-quality reds for the vintage thanks to the high percentage of cabernet sauvignon in their vineyards and wines. Most of the wines were close to 14 percent alcohol, and the intense and fine tannins gave the wines backbone, form and tension. The best appellations for us were St. Julien and Pauillac, and to a lesser extent, St Estephe. Margaux and other appellations were less consistent.

“It was really a vintage in how we reacted as a team at Lafite, and how we harvest the best grapes possible” said Saskia Rothschild, the head of Chateau Lafite in Pauillac. “We had a balance that we never expected in the wines, considering the heat of the vintage. We call the vintage internally, the ‘fiery poet.’”

The quality of the reds on the Right Bank and Pessac-Leognan is less consistent, although some stunning wines were bottled. The best wines are mostly a case of great vineyards giving the best results. For example, vineyards with soils high in limestone or smectite clay were less susceptible to the lack of water and heat in 2022. Nonetheless, some wines from these vineyards were slightly exaggerated in character. For example, Chateau Ausone made a 2022 that was over 15 percent alcohol. It was a pretty outrageous and impressive Ausone but slightly over-the-top. Still, it’s a terrific wine.

Father and son Christian (right) and Edouard Moueix, who own a number of top Right Bank estates including Trotanoy, La Fleur-Petrus and Belair-Monange.
James checks out the prunings at Pontet Canet with technical director Mathieu Bessonnet.

In general, we marked down wines that were showing too much alcohol or slightly jammy character. Regardless, everyone should be aware that most wines, particularly well-known names, are wines with substantial concentration of fruit, tannins and alcohol. It’s going to take at least four to six years of bottle age to resolve some of the intense tannins and lavish fruit in many well-known wines, unless that’s what you are looking for. They are not very apropos to the wine market today, which is looking for more refined wines for earlier drinking. But their flamboyant and slightly extreme ways make them attractive and fascinating to own and drink.

“It was frightening to think that we were making a Napa wine, but it didn’t happen,” said Nicolas Glumineau, the technical director of Pichon Lalande. “There is something about 2009 and 2010 in the 2022. It has the ripe fruit of the 2009 and the rich tannins of 2010.”

Added Thomas Duroux, the thoughtful technical director of Chateau Palmer: “It is a year of ripeness and concentration, but it is a year of harmony. It’s something we can’t understand. The risk was to have something that is a beast or a freak and then you lose your identity. It’s powerful but very well-designed.”

BOTRYTIS BOOST FOR SAUTERNES

White wines, both dry and sweet, in 2022 were excellent quality, but they are also fruit-driven like their red counterparts. I thought that the dry whites might lack energy because of hot growing seasons, but the best chateaux seemed to work impeccably in their vineyards and timed their pickings to produce excellent wines. Sauternes produced some magnificent wines, with an intensity of botrytis that jumps out of the glass when you taste them. I rated two Sauternes 100 points: the Château d'Yquem Sauternes 2022 and Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey Sauternes Crème de Tête 2022. The latter is a selection of their best barrels.

“We were ready to panic because we had no humidity,” said Lorenzo Pasquini, the director of Chateau d'Yquem. “We didn’t think we would have any noble botrytis.”

He explained that moisture finally arrived in early October and then intense levels of botrytis developed by mid-month. “We started Oct. 16, and we didn’t stop until Oct. 22, and then by Oct. 24 we had too much botrytis. We went from not enough to too much.”

Lorenzo Pasquini, the director of Cheateau d'Yquem, with his perfect-scoring Château d'Yquem Sauternes 2022.
James and Zekun at Domaine de Chevalier with owner Olivier Bernard. He made a great wine in 2022 that sells for a relative bargain.
James and Zekun tasting at Domaine de Chevalier.

The majority of the grapes used for Yquem were from the early part of the harvest and they produced a phenomenal wine of intensity and balance. It is slightly richer than the perfect 2021 but its harmony and balance make it irresistible already. I compare the 2021 and 2022 to the great 2001 and 2003, but the Yquems of today, like other Sauternes, are much more precisely made.

In total, we rated nine wines 100 points in 2022. They included: Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Lafleur, Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Léoville Las Cases, Château L'Église Clinet, Mouton Rothschild, Pétrus and Yquem. These wines have miraculous harmony, intensity and character. In fact, all the 2022 reds and whites that we rated 95 points or more (about 225 in total) showed real integrity of character and authenticity, which was not easy to achieve in such a hot and dry year.

And you don’t need to pay a fortune to find some great 2022s, namely Domaine de Chevalier, Chateau Giscours and Chateau d’Issan. They are all 98 points and about $80 a bottle. The Sauternes Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey is the same score and about the same price, while Chateau Suduiraut is 99 points and also about the same price.

Some others at similar price levels to consider and all rated 97 points include Chapelle de Labrie, Brane-Cantenac, d'Armailhac, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Malescot-St.-Exupéry, Pédesclaux, and Saint-Pierre (St.-Julien).

Stephan von Neipperg and his son Ludovic of La Mondotte in Saint Emilion made a great 2022 due to the limestone soils of the winery's unique vineyard.
Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos (right), the CEO of Chateau Margaux, whose family has owned the estate since 1977, stands in Margaux's cellar with technical director Philippe Bascaules.

“Everything is full, rich and plush, but the personality of your terroirs shows through,” Delon of Leoville Las Cases, said of the quality of the 2022s. “You see the grape variety as well. The terroir is at its extreme.”

Added Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos, the CEO of Chateau Margaux and whose family owns the first growth estate, “It is opulent, but we kept the Chateau Margaux DNA. This is very important.”

Extreme-weather vintages like 2022 are nothing new to Bordeaux. Some of the historical years such 1945, 1947 and 1949, not to mention 1961, were also extreme. One of the greatest Bordeaux ever made, the 1947 Cheval Blanc, was high in alcohol, reaching almost 15 degrees alcohol with a high pH and a volatile acidity of about 1 gram. Some called it flawed and it was also probably made with whole bunches. Yet, the wine remains a unicorn in vinous history and is still alive and well today although I haven’t drunk a bottle in a decade or so. Whether the best of 2022 Bordeaux will be viewed in the same light remains to be seen, but there are certainly a number of contenders.

– James Suckling, CEO & Publisher

Note: The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.

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