Bordeaux 2022 at Two Years: St Emilion
My first report from the right bank in 2022 Bordeaux, now the wines are in bottle, brings us to the broadest of all the big-name appellations, St Emilion. Whether it be based on number of châteaux, the array of wines produced, the area of land planted to vines or the many and varied terroirs it possesses, no other famous Bordeaux appellation is a match for St Emilion. And that means, in a broadly successful vintage such as 2022, we can expect to find some truly stellar wines here; high peaks in an already impressive mountain range.
Of course, the opposite is also true, and also I tasted wines in St Emilion which fell short of what we might expect in such a superb vintage. Wines which laid bare the difficulties some faced in this vintage. Terroir, it turns out, really matters (but you knew that already, I am sure).
In this instalment of my 2022 Bordeaux in-bottle tasting reports I publish notes on 112 wines, from exalted names such as Cheval Blanc and Angélus, down to newly promoted but still unfamiliar grand cru classé châteaux such as Badette and Montlisse, as well as notes on wines from little-known properties located at the peripheries of the appellation, where more sandy terroirs and unbending ambitions sometimes collide with eyebrow-raising results.
Let’s take a tour around some of the appellation’s terroirs, starting with one of the most incongruous, the gravels at the western periphery which border the vineyards of Pomerol. Indeed, this is a very Pomerol-like terroir, a real contrast to the sands, clays and of course limestones which otherwise dominate the appellation.
