Bordeaux 2022 at Two Years: Sauternes & Barsac
The final set of tasting notes, published in order to complete this report on 2022 Bordeaux now that it has been bottled, brings us to the vineyards of Sauternes and Barsac.
As is always the case this is a region which stands apart from the rest of Bordeaux. The requirements for a great vintage in for the sweet wines are different to those which promote greatness in reds, key being the late-season conditions which in an ideal world involve showers of rain to promote the development of botrytis on the bunches of fruit, followed by more breezy conditions which dry everything up, protecting and concentrating the fruit at the same time.
The crop in 2022 was never going to be a large one, tempered in this vintage not just by the terminal botrytis, but also by hailstorms and frost during the first few days of April. Thereafter, however, conditions were more favourable, with some warm weather during the flowering, and continued sunshine through May and into June. By the time August arrived the soils were dry but the vines were healthy. A few showers passed through the region in early September, but the thick skins remained resistant to botrytis attack.
Most in the region held their nerve, and waited.
They were rewarded for their patience; a few days of warm showers in late-September provided the requisite humidity and in early October a wave of botrytis swept through the vines. The fruit soon reached the pink-purple pourri plein stage, but then did little else, the northerly breezes doing little to dry things out.
