Bordeaux 2022 – the Primeurs performance
Reflections on a week spent tasting Bordeaux’s 2022 vintage en primeur
Primeurs is an absurd week. In five days, we visit over 50 of Bordeaux’s top châteaux, storming each to swill and spit the latest vintage. We visit some of the most desirable addresses in the world of wine. In an allotted slot, my job is to desperately capture as much information as possible – as well as taste, analyse and write notes for the wine(s) on offer. With up to 15 wines at some addresses, speed is everything – as is making sure that you’re not late for the next appointment, causing a ripple effect that will ruin weeks of careful planning.
It’s a circus – and we’re part of the show. Each address offers its own take on a tasting experience. At some there will be QR codes for access and information, with a uniformed employee charged with escorting you to an immaculately presented tasting table, or hustled into a private room. At others, you’ll stand in the family dining room, spitting into an ice bucket over a sheet of plastic, with kitchen towel in lieu of branded linen serviettes. Ambitious estates might ask you to “earn” the right to taste in some way, whether insisting on a lengthy route along a red carpet that takes you past new facilities, art installations commissioned specially or a barrel tasting before you reach the final blend – meaning time is even more precious. One estate this year had a miniature electric car and racecourse – with the fastest time of the day and week earning bottles from the vintage.
You become attuned to seeking out the best loo stops (one of the properties owned by Chanel tends to be a good bet), and seizing the opportunity for snacks where offered (Pavie – bizarrely – offers a high tea of sorts, while Domaine de Chevalier is legendary for their lunch, and the stylish Marquis d’Alesme does delicious taralli). You rate the spittoon and water offering as you hop in and out of a car between stops, and try to fight the palate fatigue that builds up as the day goes on. As one of our team said, by the time you reach the afternoon, you’re left with “a tongue like a Persian rug”.
Despite the fierce competition between estates, and the extremes in their hospitality offering, it is fascinating how the Bordelais seem to seamlessly align their messaging. For 2022, it’s a vintage that proved the region can handle climate change, it wasn’t another 2003, there’s hope for Merlot, smoke taint shouldn’t be mentioned or considered, and the wines are incomparable. Certainly, there’s some truth in amongst that – but it’s also a convenient PR story for a region that has more rivals than ever before.
And once you start digging, you get into the weeds. One estate will tell you the winter was dry, another says it was wet. One says it received 80-100mm of rain in June, while its neighbour claims there was none. One will tell you that a wind in September was key to the tiny berries, while others won’t even mention it. I’m tasked with untangling it all, scraping away at the polish and sheen to figure out what really happened, if it matters and how it impacted the wines.
I’ll be working on a full report for FINE+RARE, aiming to publish it as soon as I can, but it really is a fascinating year – and I can’t wait to revisit a week’s worth of notes, filling almost half a Moleskine. Lots of the wines aren’t ultimately my style – they’re big, tannic, fulsome and fruity. But the best, for me, offer a stunning weightlessness, a crunch and freshness, with seamless tannins and often a savoury, saline or pleasingly bitter finish. Sometimes the way they feel doesn’t match the numbers, and I can’t really tell you why – yet, at least. Is it as good as some producers want you to think it is? Almost certainly not, but the best are extraordinary – and the show must go on.
A few of my favourites from the vintage so far:
The whole Barton stable – Langoa, Léoville and Mauvesin
Ch. Canon
Ségla
Les Carmes Haut-Brion
Clos de Sarpe
Cheval Blanc
Ch. l’Eglise-Clinet, La Petite Eglise and Montlandrie
Lafite-Rothschild and all its siblings
Ch. Laroque
Pavillon Blanc du Ch. Margaux
Domaine de Chevalier Blanc
Les Perrières and Les Champs Libres from Société Civile du Ch. Lafleur
12/05/23 – Both my vintage overview and dive into how each commune fared in 2022 are now live on frw.co.uk/editorial
