Best Pauillac 2022 tasted in bottle

Pauillac always seems to deliver the goods and in the hot and dry vintage of 2022 the gravel soils coped extremely well.

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Cabernet Sauvignon, the appellation’s backbone, seemed to adapt well to the vintage conditions, and tempered them with modest alcohol levels compared to many other appellations.

The result is a series of wines that balance power with freshness and classicism.

‘We’ve never had such extreme conditions,’ Lafite’s winemaker Eric Kohler told me during the in-bottle tasting. ‘Even with all my experience, I had never seen that level of stress, but at the end we have probably the most incredible wine I’ve ever done in my life.’

He continued: ‘In the vineyard it didn’t seem like it was going to be good in 2022, but that’s the magic of our job, after 30 years of experience of this estate and terroir you can always be surprised. It seems we were more anxious than the vines’.

For Latour’s winemaker, Hélène Génin, the wines appeal due to their lack of ‘solar vintage’ markers.

She said: ‘The 2022s are surprising because of their balance. You could imagine a more solar, plumper, heavy vintage but it’s not like that. The grape maturity was great – it was easy to extract in those conditions so you needed to take attention of tannins and alcohol and also find a good balance in terms of barrels for ageing.’

Adjusting the élévage

It was a similar story at Mouton where winemaker Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy opted for a denser grain to the barrels with a lighter toast to amplify the freshness. ‘The key was to elongate the wines rather than make them broader,’ he said.

Danjoy added: ‘The 2022 vintage will be recognised for a very long time as one of the greatest with wines that defy the weather. It’s historical in the sense that it’s a stage we haven’t seen before. It’s a vintage that helped us recognise how we and the vineyards can handle the climate.’

At Pauillac fifth growth Pontet Canet, winemaker Mathieu Bessonnet shorted the ageing period to 12 months, two less than usual, and finished the wines in concrete tanks to retain freshness. ‘The key was to manage extraction, we didn’t need added power’.

The 2022 certainly shows an early accessability with bright fruit and lots of finesse.

My favourite overall wine was Lafite for its ability to belie the vintage, presenting a delicate and graceful wine with 13.7% ABV, beautifully pure fruit and precision from start to finish.

But there were many outstanding bottles that will delight for years to come.

Top-scorers and best value

Top scorers:

Château Lafite Rothschild – 100 points

Château Mouton Rothschild – 99 points

Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande – 99 points

Château Latour – 98 points

Château Pichon Baron – 98 points

Château Batailley – 97 points

Château Lynch-Bages – 97 points

Château Pontet-Canet – 97 points

Great value:

Château Fonbadet – 94 points

Domaine Les Sadons – 94 points

Château Pibran – 93 points

See all Pauillac 2022 wines

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Tasting notes for all 800 Bordeaux 2022s

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BORDEAUX 2022 IN BOTTLE SCORE TABLE: Top-scoring wines with 93 points or above

Individual appellation analysis and top-scoring wines

Top-rated Pauillac 2022 in bottle

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Best Pauillac 2022 tasted in bottle

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Adjusting the élévage