2022 is not as extremely spicy as the blockbuster year 2019 and not quite as delicately nuanced as 2020. Experienced winemakers rather speak of a clearly more perfect reincarnation of the vintages 1982, 1961, and 1949.
This was the driest summer in France since records began and overall the hottest year since 1947. Not as extreme and suddenly hot as 2003, but rather evenly warm promoting harmony and very dry.
After heavy rain in November and December 2021, the following months remained dry and warm. The vines could therefore slowly adapt to the dryness during an even flowering. The terroirs with the best water retention properties and very deep-rooted old vines could relatively easily use the winter and spring water reserves through the dry summer after an early and sunny flowering.
Rain only returned in June and then in the second half of August with 30 to 50mm. After that, it stayed sunny and dry with a long "Indian Summer" well into October and even November. Everyone could wait for the perfect harvest time, especially since there was no sugar-alcohol pressure due to summer stagnations.
Those with old vines and perfect terroirs who were spared from the increasingly frequent April frosts and the too frequent hailstorms of early summer could, especially as organic winemakers, rejoice in the complete absence of rot and fungal diseases. No one had to spray anything at all.
For organic winemakers with old vines and superb terroir, 2022 was therefore a perfect year never experienced before. Especially since over the past 10 extreme years, they have become accustomed to better adapted leaf and soil management.
Saint Emilion and Castillon’s limestone cliffs, Pomerol and Fronsac’s clay soils, and the thick gravel lenses of Médoc had hardly any worries with very old vine stocks except for the downside of slightly lower yields.
