Charles Curtis MW: my top 10 wines of 2022

Reflecting on the best wines one has consumed over the past twelve months is a curious exercise. Why only ten? What constitutes ‘best’? To make the selection, I reviewed my notes for the entire year and chose without constraint.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Charles’ top 10 wines of 2022

Most, but not all, are mature.

Sometimes a just-released wine is so imposing it makes an impression that lasts all year. I have two this time: Romanée-Conti 2019, and Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet 2020. Both of these wines are among the best new releases of the year.

Among the mature examples, two of the reds were both from Clos de la Roche – but sixty years apart. Similarly, two whites were both from Corton-Charlemagne, fifty years apart.

Two were champagnes, thirty years apart. Another wine from Morey-St-Denis from the 30s and a bottle of 1990 Château Latour rounded out my top ten.

Looking back at 2022

My list may seem an odd lot, but each of these wines cast a spell. In the end, 2022 was a year of great wine, but it also felt like a year of transition.

The year got off to a slow start, but by the end of the year, I had spent more time in vineyards than ever before. I worked on a new book during the first few cold months of the year, and vineyard visits and wine events kicked into high gear in March. The month began with a look at the wines of the 2019 vintage in bottle from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, accompanied by a delicious lunch in Manhattan’s Pool Room.

At mid-month, friends in Atlanta, Georgia hosted their annual tasting of Bordeaux. Convivial tastings among collectors are some of the most enjoyable wine occasions, and our dual vertical tastings of Château Latour and Château Lafite-Rothschild were early highlights of the year.

From Atlanta, I flew directly to France for Grands Jours de Bourgogne, the ‘Bourgogne Biennial’ series of trade tastings that occurs throughout Burgundy every other year. This year we looked at the 2020 vintage, and there were many delightful wines. There was also a lot of COVID transmission, and I came down with my first (and thus far only) case at the end of Grands Jours.

Luckily, before returning, I had the opportunity to dine at Les Climats in Paris, a superb venue for all things Burgundian in the heart of the seventh arrondissement near the Musée d’Orsay. Fortunately, my COVID was mild and short-lived; I spent a fortnight in New York and then returned to Europe for a week of tasting in Champagne, including the annual series of trade tastings called Printemps de Champagne and a series of producer visits in the Aube, with a particularly memorable moment spent at Champagne Jacques Lassaigne.

Decanter World Wine Awards followed Printemps, and then it was back to Burgundy. I was focused on getting a first look at the 2021 vintage, but I took time out for a jaw-dropping double vertical of Clos de la Roche and Clos des Monts Luisants at Domaine Ponsot.

I stayed in Burgundy for most of the next six weeks, culminating in the festivities surrounding Musique et Vin au Clos de Vougeot. This annual celebration of chamber music and Burgundy wine happens the last week in June and is always a high point of my tasting calendar. Friends and I combined domaine visits with convivial dinners to good effect, and both the 2020 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet and the 1937 Domaine des Lambrays from my list were consumed that week.

After a summer of writing and visiting wineries Stateside, I returned for almost eight weeks beginning in late September. The agenda included winery visits in Champagne and Burgundy and several side trips, building up to the Hospices de Beaune auction. The week before the sale is a ferociously busy time in Burgundy, and in addition to the lovely ’21s I was tasting and the older vintages over dinner, my last day of tasting featured the remarkable bookends of the two Corton Charlemagnes (from different tastings) highlighted here.

After this tasting marathon, I welcomed the holidays by speaking at a dinner organized by collectors in Houston, Texas, where we enjoyed eighteen vintages of Pol Roger. Although the Champagnes from 1934, 1949, and 1959 were fascinating, these aging beauties were perhaps eclipsed by a series of vintages of Cuvée Winston Churchill, whose stand-out wines were the 1979, 1985, and 1988 vintages. Spoiled for choice, I added the 1985 to my list, confident that I had put together a compelling assortment for my ‘top ten’ this year.

Charles Curtis MW: my top wines of 2022

Wines are listed in score order

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