Bordeaux 2022 at Two Years: Pauillac
My schedule in Pauillac naturally had me dashing from one fabled first growth to the next, with plenty of other appointments between them, and each of my visits to these exalted properties brought new tasting experiences.
I started my time touring this appellation at Latour, where I tasted with the technical director Hélène Génin. Hélène spoke of the estate’s vines and their produce with a relaxed and humble demeanour, despite the fact her wines are coveted by huge swathes of the wine-drinking world. Once we had finished discussing and tasting the 2022 vintage, I also tasted the Latour late-release wines for 2025; but as I have already reported on those, I shall confine myself to just the 2022 vintage here.
The 2022 from Latour typifies the vintage, in that it presents a core of dark and concentrated fruit, all griottes and dark chocolate, but with a profile lifted by a remarkable scented perfume, this famed first growth taking on a decidedly more floral tone through the middle, with hints of iris petal and dark yet fragrant violets. Beneath it all are the towering columns of tannin which tell me this is not going to be a Latour that will give true pleasure for another decade or two; yes you can drink wine young if you wish, it is a free world. But seriously, nobody should be drinking this any time soon, not even when it is eventually released, presumably six or seven years from now. In any case, if you have some back pay burning a hole in your packet, it is to the 2016 vintage you should be looking. The 2022 will not be released for some years yet, while the 2016 release is scheduled for later this year, and no matter how remarkable the 2022 vintage is, I don’t think it will ever match the performance of the 2016 which is set to be a legendary Latour for your children (and grandchildren) to enjoy.
In a perfect world I would perhaps call in on the other two first growths next, but you have to squeeze in appointments when you can in a tasting trip, and next up were Latour’s near neighbours. No, not Léoville-Las-Cases (wrong appellation!), but the two Pichon estates. I came first to Pichon-Lalande, to taste the wine made by technical director Nicolas Glumineau.
