OLD LESSONS FOR NEW WINES
I’ve written this earlier than, however one of many nice classes in advantageous wine I realized 40 years in the past was tasting Bordeaux’s 1982 classic with a few of the nice historic vintners of the time, together with Alexis Lichine, Anthony Barton, Jean Michel Instances, Hugh Lawton, Jean Eugene Borie and Bruno Prats. We tasted all their wines collectively throughout a lunch at Prieure-Lichine through the first VinExpo in 1983, and so they all mentioned that 1982 was nice due to its early steadiness, richness and construction, and that the wine can be nice from barrel and later in bottle. The 1982 classic continues to be a benchmark for contemporary Bordeaux.
The 2022 just isn’t the identical as 1982, however its wines share a few of the enticing youthful character, although robust tannins are hidden beneath the fruit. The wines of 2022 additionally share a few of the character of wines from latest sizzling vintages like 2015, 2018 and 2020 in addition to the tannins of 2016.
In tasting the younger barrel samples, the very best quality wines of 2022 had distinctive fruit and freshness in addition to advantageous and intense tannins. A number of had been overdone, and I marked down some massive names for wines with an excessive amount of tannin and/or an excessive amount of fruit. Maybe cellar getting older over the subsequent 18 months will tame the wines, however a lot of the excellent high quality wines I tasted (there have been loads) already confirmed the spectacular filigree and concord I search for in new, classically structured Bordeaux. That proven fact that I wasn’t drained after tasting near 100 wines a day highlighted this enticing nature within the 2022s.