St Emilion Grand Cru Classé, 2022: The 2019 Vintage
Hot on the heels of the publication of the 2022 St Emilion classification, the St Emilion roadshow rolled into London Town.
Well, when I say ‘roadshow’, I suppose I could be a little more precise. From the ranks of the 71 châteaux currently ranked at the Grand Cru Classé level, 25 proprietors (or some other representative of the château) flew in to set up shop on the 42nd floor of one of London’s skyscrapers, each bringing along two vintages to taste. Everybody brought their 2019 vintage, which has now been in a bottle for over a year, and which is widely available. In the second choice, however, there was considerable diversity; many brought along young wines from lauded vintages such as 2018 or 2016, while one or two brought older wines, from 2009 and 2007.
Naturally I tasted all the wines, along the way enjoying the contrast between the fresh and supple approachability of the 2019 vintage – a very easy vintage to taste in its youth – and these more mature vintages. In the first of two reports on this tasting I deal exclusively with the wines of 2019.
Before I get to them, as usual, I provide a brief recap on the vintage. If you just want to read about the wines, skip down a few paragraphs.
The 2019 Vintage
One of a run of successful vintages which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic (not the season or harvest itself, but the primeur tastings which were scheduled for early 2020 came a cropper, and I was subsequently deluged by 2019 Bordeaux samples for tasting at home), it is only a year since I visited Bordeaux to taste the 2019s from bottle.
