In case your inbox is not already shouting the fact to you, the wine trade is on its way with the 2022 Bordeaux en primeur campaign. We will offer some of the key wines including some of my favourites, during the coming days.

As always I try to gain my own first hand experience with the wines, and to that end I spent a week in Bordeaux in a sort of on-the-road speed dating-like hop from one château to another, to discuss the vintage and to taste barrel samples of the 2022 vintage wines. Of course the wines are at a tender young age at this stage, difficult to taste and assess, but by the end of a long week, an impression of the vintage emerges, and the standout wines become clearer.

2022 is a hot dry year that proved challenging to the vines and the vignerons. This is a bold vintage with alcohols typically in the 14-15 degree range, and due to the lack of water, small berries produced low skin to juice ratios that lead to intense levels of extract and tannin without having to push too hard. The reds are generally ripe and intense. If not managed well they are hot and hard. However, due to some quirks in the season, there is also good freshness in many of the wines, and that aromatic and palate expression of freshness, combined with the intensity of the vintage, has delivered some thrilling wines, including some I will want in my own cellar.

In the report I go into more detail on that, I discuss whether you should consider buying some 2022s, I list my top ten wines tasted, my top ten for value, and provide my tasting notes and ratings for the 2022s I tasted over the week (including, where I had the information to hand, some technical information).

If you would like to discuss any of the wines, or request offers on some particular wines you might want, please get in touch.