There has been early praise for Burgundy 2022 wines ahead of the traditional January en primeur season.
‘Overall quality is very high for red wines and good to very good for white wines,’ said Decanter’s Burgundy correspondent, Charles Curtis MW, in a full vintage report coming soon to Decanter Premium and also featured in Decanter magazine’s January 2024 issue.
Alongside high quality, Burgundy 2022 represents a return to ‘modern-day average size’, Will Hargrove, head of fine wine at UK merchant Corney & Barrow, told Decanter in late 2023.
He said the merchant will host its first proper Burgundy en primeur tasting since the pre-Covid era, on 16 January.
The tasting did not run last year due to scarcity of a weather-hit 2021 vintage, especially for white wines.
‘Yields were almost universally higher (for 2022 than 2021) so there should be more availability this year,’ said Julian Campbell, senior buyer – and Burgundy buyer – at Justerini & Brooks, which will host a tasting on 17 January in London.
Campbell said economic conditions will likely impact some consumers, but he still expected strong demand for 2022-vintage wines, noting high quality and also historical levels of interest.
‘For the past decade we’ve had a waiting list for the majority of the Burgundy we offer en primeur,’ he said.
Tight allocations remain a common theme in Burgundy, particularly for the most sought-after wines.
Still, for prospective buyers, Campbell said a combination of higher yields and the economic climate means ‘the vintage should offer customers their best chance of accessing cuvées that have been limited over the past decade’.
He added, ‘It’s definitely a year for customers to chance their arm in asking for wines they might not previously have had access to.’
Burgundy 2022 en primeur release prices to stay stable?
Price rises have been a major debate in recent Burgundy en primeur campaigns, although the picture naturally varies between wineries.
Several producers implemented increases last year to cover costs in the small 2021 vintage.
Justerini & Brooks, Corney & Barrow, Goedhuis & Co and Berry Bros & Rudd all indicated prior to Christmas that they anticipated release prices for the 2022 vintage to remain broadly flat, compared to last year’s campaign.
While release prices may not fall, many producers already know they have a relatively large 2023 vintage sitting in their cellars, which may ease pressure for further increases, said Hargrove.
Campbell said in December: ‘We haven’t seen many prices yet, but what we have seen has been mainly flat versus last year – and we expect most producers will follow suit.
‘This feels like a sensible move in the current climate.’
Berry Bros & Rudd said in a Burgundy 2022 preview report in early December: ‘It is impossible to generalise, and we have not yet received all our allocations, but prices on the whole remain stable thanks to the security of two back-to-back vintages of good production levels. With the growers facing inflationary pressures on energy, dry goods and wages, this is very positive news.’
