Burgundy 2022 En Primeur

Burgundy is back with a bang with the 2022 vintage:  A fresh, attractive, and relatively plentiful year, excellent for both reds and whites.  Our offers from this vintage are now out and available to purchase en primeur.  In November, we made our annual cask-tasting visit to the Côte d'Or, to taste the '22s from barrel.  Below, you will find a summary of the growing season and our impressions from our visit. 

VIEW OUR FULL BURGUNDY 2022 EN PRIMEUR OFFER HERE.

How was the weather in 2022?

After a mild, dry winter, the first green shoots emerged in April, just in time to meet a burst of cold air from the north, bringing threat of frost from 3-11 April.  Happily, at this stage in their development, the buds are covered in fine cotton-like hairs, protecting them the worst of the frosts.

Spring-like weather arrived in mid-April, resulting in rapid vegetative growth and the first flowers just a month later.  Flowering was two weeks earlier than usual.  Budburst was followed by exceptionally warm weather.  Rain came at just the right time before fruit set and the berries developed in hot, sunny weather. Thunderstorms from 21-25 June, brought more much-needed water, although a few hailstorms did cause damage in some areas.

After such a propitious start, an excellent harvest seemed likely, but a series of heatwaves and no rain threatened to change the course of the vintage.  In contrast to 2021, there was no threat of mildew or any other maladies of the vine, but the lack of water became increasingly critical.  In mid-August, chardonnay vines in areas went into physiological shutdown, closing up the stomata in their leaves to conserve water.  The berries shrivelled to a very small size.  Vines in shallow or sandy soils suffered the worst.  Acidity levels were a concern, but it became clear after the vintage that the total acidity in each berry had been preserved as the water content fell, resulting in a final pH not too far off an average year. Rain came in late August, rehydrating the vines and setting the scene for an excellent harvest.

Picking for the Chardonnay vines on the Côte de Beaune started from 20 August, with the rest of the region following on behind.  The last grapes were gathered on the Côte de Nuits, the Hautes Côtes, and in the Chablis region during the third week in September, an unusually long, slow harvest.  Some areas ripened at a different rate to others, but this was also due to human decisions.  The grapes were in excellent health and we are hopeful of a great year for both reds and whites.

Everyone was extremely happy

It may seem a trite observation, but it made a tremendous difference to be greeted by beaming smiles and generous arrays of cask samples.  The contrast with last year was enormous when even the most charming winemakers were exceedingly downcast about the tiny '21 vintage (despite its quality).  We were often able to taste just two or three wines at domaines where we might sometimes be offered a dozen.  This year we were once again privileged to taste some stupendous arrays of premiers and grands crus.  As well as providing us with more buying options (and hence choices available for you), this also gave us more insight into the vintage as a whole.

'Fresh' and 'pretty' are the bywords for 2022

The 2022 vintage is not homogeneous, some growers who picked too late will have made overripe wines.  However, this was not the case with any of the domaines we deal with.  Without exception, we tasted wines with preternatural freshness, given the heat in 2022.  The perception of freshness is made up of a number of elements, not least ripeness levels, but acidity is a key factor.

As wine merchants, we are obsessed with asking winemakers "what's the pH"... a relatively simple marker of acidity that we can understand.  Our conversations reminded us that this is rather simplistic.  The kind of acidity is equally important (malic, tartaric, citric, or lactic).  The '22s have a similar pH to the '20s but are much fresher, with acidity more similar to the 2016s.  Lots of wines also had beautiful salinity (a taste perception linked to succinic acid).

Burgundy is (still) all about people and place

One definition of what makes a wine 'fine' is the intention behind it...a wine made to be more than just a pleasant alcoholic beverage; that expresses something about the place it comes from, the person who made it, or something exceptional in the techniques used.  Burgundy is still an exemplar in this regard.

With the winemakers all smiles and ready to chat, we were reminded of how important intrinsic winemaker personality and vineyard sites are in Burgundy.  The ability of these wines to express the place they come from and the character of the person who made them is astounding.  Some appreciation of this can turn burgundy from being merely a delicious drink into the most beguiling pastime.

If this doesn't float your boat, then quite a lot of the content in our offers will have little meaning for you.  If that's the case, then we are very happy to recommend a selection of reds and white to suit your pocket, please just let us know.  However, we hope that examples like that of Domaine de Suremain in Monthelie will interest you.

When we asked Gwendoline de Suremain (pictured above) what had changed in 2022, she replied, gleefully, "me!".  This is her first vintage as winemaker, taking over from her father, Eric, a guru of biodynamics.  The wines are still made in the same traditional manner in an ancient basket press and wooden vats that would look entirely at home in fifteenth-century Burgundy; but they have undergone a revolution.  Myriad small and not-so-small decisions in the vineyard and winery have accumulated to make huge differences and the wines have a new balance and energy to them.

The vines are adapting...but can they continue to do so?

Despite the challenges, we may well look back on recent years as a Golden Age for Côte d'Or burgundy from small domaines.  Several high profile winemakers have made dire predictions along the lines that "it will be impossible to grow Pinot Noir here in 50 years".  2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 have all defied expectations to produce great wines from exceptionally hot vintages.  There is no doubt that plant adaptation has made this possible, especially in 2022.  We were becoming complacent about this, until Benoît Eschard at Domaine Jeannin-Naltet in Mercurey pointed out that there may well be a tipping point, when the vines simply can't handle the heat and low rainfall. Hopefully we will have many more vintages like the ones mentioned above, but this shouldn't be taken for granted.

Tell me again, how did the wines taste?

Whites and reds are both excellent.  Both will be drinking young, but have plenty of ability to age.  Think of a cross between the concentration and perfect ripeness of fruit of 2020 and the more energetic acidity of 2016.  The whites tend to show citrus and green fruits and many have a wonderful salty character that adds to the impression of freshness.  The red have particularly fine, ripe and elegant tannins and a generous core of fruit that is held in balance by the fresh acidity.  The wines are almost exactly mid-way between the more concentrated style of recent hot vintages and the more classic style of years like 2021, 2016 and 2014.  They should delight lovers of both styles.

You can see a full list of the wines below, or read the individual release offers here.

Offered en primeur.

White wines expected in spring 2024, and red wines in autumn 2024.