Every new vintage is hyped up as one of the greatest or at least something special. Experienced wine consumers let this go by. However, it is hard to ignore the avalanche of high ratings for even mid-priced Bordeaux wines from the 2022 vintage (these are based on barrel samples).
I normally do not mention any commercial operators in the industry, but today I will make an exception, as Langton's has managed to bring a tasting of over 30 en primeur wines from this vintage to Sydney. It is very rare to be able to taste en primeur outside of Bordeaux. Yours truly attended the tasting last night. So what is the verdict?
On tasting were wines in the low and mid price range from both left and right bank. The lower priced wines ($50-100) were relatively simple, and I would recommend a Cabernet from one of good makers in Australia over them any day.
However, in the mid range ($100-500), there were some amazing wines. So what is the characteristic of the vintage? Elegance, elegance, elegance combined with depth of fruit and silky, sometimes firm tannins. There was also a significant difference between the wines, where it comes down to preferences. Château Trotanoy and La Fleur-Pétrus were super elegant, and the tannins so fine grained, they were hardly there. Château Hosanna seemed to be without tannins. These wines, all from Pomerol, were good, but not for me.
My favorites were Château Haut Bailly from Pressac-Léognan, Château Beychevelle from St-Julien and Clos Saint Martin from St-Emilion. Not far behind were Certan de May and Seraphine from Pomerol. These wines were elegant, with great depth of fruit, already very balanced and fine tannins. The Clos Saint Martin probably had the biggest punch of these. This selection also suggests that great wines were made across the region.
In the morning, and after writing this, I had a look at some of the wine critics’ ratings of these wines. They went from 95 to 99 points. The Haut Bailly was especially praised, likely one of the wines of this vintage.
There were a couple of wines from Margaux of all regions, which were denser and bolder, but I liked the wines with a happy medium weight.
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