_____
“So, how was the 2022 growing season?” we’d ask each vigneron. Almost inevitably, we were answered with a shrug. It was fine. Uneventful. Little of note. Of course this is a dream for producers, especially in the wake of 2021 – a wet year that brought with it severe frost, relentless mildew pressure and consequentially tiny yields. It’s not a dream, however, if you’re tasked with reporting on the year. Fortunately, with a little digging, there is plenty to say – but it speaks to the year and wines that it wasn’t one of severe extremes.
It's also one about which producers are undeniably happy – a quiet confidence oozing its way into every tasting. Generous yields brought respite from the relative traumas of high temperatures, dry conditions, devastating frosts and regrettably empty cellars of recent vintages – and then there’s the quality of the wines too. For most vignerons, 2022 was a gift.
The 2022 growing season
The winter from 2021 replenished water reserves sufficiently and was mild (as is increasingly the case), but not disconcertingly so. Temperatures dropped after budbreak in early April, but while a handful resorted to lighting their “bougies” or candles to protect their crop, many didn’t feel it was necessary. While there were a handful of frosty nights, the weather was dry rather than humid – avoiding the disasters of 2021 or 2016. Faiveley noted that they saw a little damage in the Côte Chalonnaise, but any other damage recounted was negligible. Marion Raphet reported that April also saw hail in Chambolle-Musigny and some Bourgogne plots, reducing her yield by around 30%.
As Frédéric Weber at Bouchard told us, after budbreak things kicked off quickly – and he hired 20 additional people to ensure that they could handle all the work in the vineyard in the condensed growing season. Warm and dry conditions meant the vines flourished, with perfect conditions that allowed for even flowering on 20th May – foretelling a generous crop – and this weather held through the following month.
June was pivotal, however, as Jérôme Flous at Domaine Faiveley noted – with the water that arrived that month changing everything, separating 2022 from a year like 2020. Heavy rainfall in the second half of the month alleviated potential hydric stress, even if it seemed potentially disastrous at the time. In Gevrey-Chambertin in particular, a storm on 22nd June was destructive – with torrents of water rushing through the streets and even flooding several producers’ cellars. Florence Heresztyn recorded 100mm in a mere 30 minutes. To add to their problems, there was also some localised hail in the north of the village, around Brochon according to Arnaud Mortet, with his parcels of Lavaux Saint-Jacques and Champeaux hit badly. Domaine Duroché was also impacted, with the hail frustratingly passing just to the north of last year’s corridor and reducing their yields in Lavaux Saint-Jacques to 20hl/ha.
While Gevrey-Chambertin was most impacted by June’s weather, most of the Côte d’Or received rain. In Puligny-Montrachet, Alvina Pernot reported receiving 100mm on 30th June, while Flous at Faiveley explained that over the entire month Nuits-Saint-Georges saw three times its average rainfall (250mm versus the 60mm that is considered “normal”).
With these downpours, erosion was a concern – with many fearing their precious topsoil would be swept away. Those with cover crops that secured soil were naturally protected, and none of the producers we spoke to seemed to have suffered too badly. At Domaine Georges Lignier, Benoît Stehly – who had been burnt by his permanent grass cover in 2020, feeling it was too much competition for his vines – decided to plough in the spring, unfortunately just in time for the June rain, meaning his vineyards were more exposed, but luckily his Premiers and Grands Crus emerged unscathed, partly thanks to Morey-Saint-Denis’s much-mocked drainage system (“ugly, expensive yet efficient”, as Stehly describes it, the system was tested for the second time since its installation in the 1990s).
This rainfall fuelled the vines through July and August’s warm and dry conditions. Fortunately, the summer heat came in waves, rather than the incessant onslaught of 2003, for example, where the vines (and producers) sweltered for 17 days. In 2022, the temperature spiked for four days each in June, July and August, Henri Boillot told us. Producers are now careful when it comes to deleafing, and most did so minimally, providing additional shade for the fruit, and some – such as Bouchard – used kaolin, a type of clay that acts as a “sunscreen” for the grapes. It’s common for producers to remove more on the morning side and leave a thicker canopy on the afternoon side, shielding fruit from the sun’s fiercest rays, as at Arnaud Mortet and Olivier Bernstein.
While the downy mildew of 2021 wasn’t a problem, the warm, dry condition did result in oidium pressure. Cyril Audoin (Domaine Charles Audoin, Marsannay) had to spray 23 times to protect his crop, almost every week during the summer, while Frédéric Weber at Bouchard noted the pressure was particularly bad at the end of July. Nuits-Saint-Georges appealed as a village to the controlling body to use a helicopter for full coverage, and all the vineyards were sprayed with copper sulphate (permitted in organic and biodynamic viticulture) to help stave off disease.
Green harvesting – which was essential in the 2023 – was relatively common, although (perhaps with the brutal yields of 2021 in memory) not universal. Pruning and de-budding lay the groundwork for the yield, as was emphasised by Bernstein, and some producers, such as Pavelot or Boillot, prefer to avoid green-harvesting, feeling it’s too late to “correct” the vine balance at that stage. At Bouchard, they saw some coulure on the Chardonnay, naturally restricting the yield and meaning they only green-harvested Pinot Noir.
It was Frédéric Weber at Bouchard, along with a handful of others such as Marion Raphet, who emphasised the importance of rain on 19th August, a welcome 15-35mm which powered the vines over the finish line, aiding maturity, plumping the berries with juice and increasing tartaric acid levels. Not everyone agreed, of course, and in Meursault, Henri Boillot argued it was irrelevant – evaporating within an hour of touching the ground.
Picking started in late August, with Domaine d’Auvenay one of the first out of the gate, picking Chardonnay in Puligny-Montrachet on 24th August, with Henri Boillot just behind on 25th August with Pinot Noir in Volnay. At Domaine des Lambrays, Jacques Devauges has calculated that the modern vine cycle dictates an average 93, rather than the traditional 100, days between flowering and harvest. By that logic he would have been out from 25th August, but held off until 28th. Jean-Marie Fourrier, as usual, waited a little longer (“We don’t do a Crémant,” he jokes), feeling that “terroir needs to be revealed by phenolic maturity”, and started bringing Pinot Noir in from 5th September. Grivot was among the last to pick on 12th September, when temperatures had started to drop. All the fruit was in the cellar by 20th September.
The year’s rain allowed most people to gather a full crop, with yields ranging from circa 30hl/ha for old vines and parcels struck by hail, up to 50hl/ha in certain appellations. In general, producers reached or were close to the legal maximum, 42hl/ha for the Grands Crus (and more for lesser appellations). Chantal Tortochot noted it was the first full harvest since she took over from her father in 1996, while Cyril Audoin was delighted to be able to fill his cellar, having lost a whopping 70% in 2021 – and that sense of relief was almost universal.
The 2022 vintage in the winery
The more generous rainfall in 2022 was not just key to the yield, but the balance of the fruit harvested. The water essentially “diluted” the berries, meaning sugar levels were generally average – equating to moderate alcohol levels that mostly sit between 12.5 and 13.5%, with a few outliers on either side.
Hot weather reduced the level of malic acid in the grapes, but several vignerons highlighted that the berries had high levels of tartaric acid, bringing freshness, and some attributed this to the August rain. The low malic levels also meant that malolactic fermentation had less of an impact on the final wine, not reducing acidity significantly.
As with several producers in Bordeaux in 2022, the ability to cool fruit before processing it was a boon – as Bouchard highlighted, finding that even their early-morning picks were coming in at 22-23˚C. While more common in the New World, an increasing number of producers in Burgundy are installing refrigerated cool rooms, as at Mortet. Hubert Grivot, among others, emphasised it was key to sort the fruit, filtering out any dried or shrivelled berries. Beyond this tiny proportion of dried berries (sorted out effortlessly by vibrating sorting tables at most addresses), the fruit was in perfect health. Henri Boillot laughed while miming the team just watching the fruit run along the table, remarking, “Oui, c’est joli,” and not needing to intervene at all.
Some producers argued that it was an easy vintage to vinify. Florence Heresztyn’s consultant told her to take a seat and relax, while Benoît Stehly (Domaine Georges Lignier) told us it was “a vintage for doing nothing” – something which is easy when you have good fruit.
This perhaps doesn’t tell the full story, however. The year’s warm conditions meant that pH levels were generally on the higher side, especially for reds. This is challenging from a winemaking perspective, and increases the risk of bacterial spoilage, with Brettanomyces a particular threat – from fermentation through to bottling. Despite this, we heard of surprisingly few issues, something Heresztyn attributed to high YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen) in the grapes – nutrients that help fuel fermentation. For Stehly, the key to managing the spoilage threat was to add sulphur dioxide judiciously throughout the process, stifling any unwanted activity in the musts.
Hugues Pavelot had a handful of ferments that were tricky and seemed reluctant to finish, but found that after pressing them off they went dry in tank. David Duband had some misfortune this year, having tried to use no sulphur during vinification across his range for the first time. He had an issue with his first few ferments, where malolactic fermentation started before the alcoholic fermentation had finished, consuming the sugar and leading to something called “piqûre lactique”, developing acetic acid, increased volatility and more undesirable elements. He was able to rein these in by adding sulphur and inoculating with conventional yeast, and then adapted his pied de cuve (using older-vine fruit, de-stemmed and sulphured) for the large majority that remained, avoiding further problems, meaning although it was a stressful start the rest of the vintage ran smoothly.
As with chaptalisation, acidification has long been something that is part of winemaking, but little discussed, and with global warming has become increasingly common. And in 2022, acidification was widespread. “If someone said they didn’t, it’s not true,” Florence Heresztyn told us. She had to acidify some wines, but also felt careful (and expensive) analysis throughout élevage was important, with higher sulphur additions required in some instances to avoid problems.
By adding tartaric acid prior to fermentation (the preferred time for acidification for the best possible integration), producers could also reduce the aforementioned spoilage risk. Jérôme Flous from Domaine Faiveley avoided acidifying where he could, cautious of the possible disjoint between adjusted acidity levels and the year’s ripe fruit; for him it was essential, however, on some shallow-rooted young vines, and on vineyards with high potassium levels in the soils (resulting in higher pH).
Some producers acidified almost everything, some only a handful of wines, and some producers avoided it entirely, such as Duroché (also aided by being one of the first to pick). While it’s easy to consider this undesirable manipulation from a philosophical standpoint, it’s a modest adjustment – an additional effort (and cost) that is only done to preserve quality. We didn’t taste a single wine where the acidity felt at odds with the fruit, the “disjoint” or jarring acidity that might be feared – and it’s worth remembering that legendary vintages such as 1990 were almost universally acidified.
There will be more on elements specific to each colour below, however the wines are amazingly approachable at this early stage. As a result, some producers plan to bottle them earlier to capture this (as at Audoin), while Nicolas Potel (Domaine de Bellene and Maison Roche de Bellene) wants to capture the fruit but also, with the high pH, wants to have them safely bottled and sulphured to avoid any potential problems. At Bouchard, Frédéric Weber sees the temptation but plans to wait, thinking of the 2015 vintage which offered such delicacy and terroir definition from barrel but, having bottled it early, is now rather closed.
Burgundy 2022: the whites
The 2022 whites have already started stealing headlines. Reading about the year, it’s easy to expect lush, fruit-forward, earlier-drinking wines from a sunny vintage – but it’s not so. As we already touched on, the Chardonnay has surprising freshness (generally the wines sit between 3.2 and 3.3pH, often towards the lower end of that range), offering a juicy mouthful of ripe yet still classical fruit. Think of white peach, melon and citrus rather than papaya, mango and pineapple. Add to this minerality, salinity and dry extract, and it makes for some extremely impressive wines.
The Yonne saw less rain than the Côte d’Or, making for more concentration, generally. While we haven’t had the chance to taste extensively in Chablis, the wines we have tasted are classically proportioned, with bright acidity and ripe fruit offset by typically stony, oyster-shell tones.
The low malic acid levels were favourable, meaning that malolactic fermentation had little impact on the final wine, although some producers – such as Jadot – chose to block it on some wines to preserve acidity.
At Bouchard, Frédéric Weber emphasised the importance of fermentation; opting for a short fermentation at around 16-17˚C to retain the freshness and purity of the Chardonnay, with high levels of turbidity in the juice. He was also careful with pressing, cutting and de-classifying the final press faction which has higher pH, and has kept the wine on full lees during élevage to protect it against oxidation.
Henri Boillot highlighted how much drier it was in the Côte de Beaune versus the Côte de Nuits, receiving only half the average rainfall (300mm versus the “normal” 600mm), making it as dry as 2005 or 2015, and for him a year that is a cousin of 2020. Despite this, he describes it as “très frais, très dynamique”, having the freshness of 2017 (a common reference point). With the resulting concentration in the wines, he used a little more new oak than normal, feeling the Chardonnay could handle it. By contrast, both Au Pied du Mont Chauve and Nicolas Potel opted to reduce the oak, not wanting to mask the natural fruit character.
“I love this vintage too because it’s easy to understand the terroir,” said Weber – and he is right, for each terroir shows its clear imprint in the glass. For Jérôme Flous at Domaine Faiveley, this is “a top, top white vintage”, homogenous and exceptional – comparing it again to 2017, a year he feels is his best vintage ever for Chardonnay.
There are of course exceptions to every rule, and some wines don’t share the tension found in the vast majority. Choosing from only the best producers, however, is a safe bet here – with wines that combine taut acidity, concentration and a core of alluring fruit that makes them hard to resist, yet also offers great ageing potential.
Burgundy 2022: the reds
While we had heard murmurs of the quality of the whites, it’s the reds that most surprised us. The best Pinot Noir this year is joyous. Fresh and vibrant, with ripe yet crunchy fruit, incredibly fine but present tannin structure, moderate alcohols, and often with a saline, savoury or bitter edge: these are modern, climate-change era wines, yet remain classically proportioned.
Each village and vineyard shone through at most addresses. Chambolle-Musigny is always the test of a vintage for me, and there were some stunning examples of this lacy, most delicate village this year. Nuits-Saint-Georges, a village that can sometimes be a little austere in its youth, repeatedly seemed to over-perform in tastings. While some producers felt that clay-rich soils or deeper-rooted (often older) vines excelled, it’s hard to find hard-and-fast rules for the vintage, with the quality generally very consistent across producers’ ranges. Perhaps a suggestion that decision-making – despite vignerons’ suggestions that it was an easy year – was key.
The 2022s are almost irresistible from barrel, many of them so juicy and delicious that they are quite frankly hard to spit out. But don’t let their approachability fool you into thinking they won’t age, for everything is there in the best wines. As Jean-Marie Fourrier noted, they’re the sort of wines that are so good young that you will likely regret drinking them so early.
We’ve already spoken about the warm conditions that were at play in 2022, and while the best producers have managed this carefully, some wines do feel a little ripe or lacking in freshness. It is for exactly this reason that is so important to go and taste the wines, for even within a producer, sometimes a specific cuvée might not be as precise as others. And it’s hard to predict the wines that didn’t thrive on paper – they don’t necessarily have the highest pH (and it’s worth noting that total acidity and pH are different), nor were they always picked the latest. These factors alone, as Charles van Canneyt (Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat) mentioned, don’t determine quality. The handful of wines that don’t reach the greatness found elsewhere seem to suffer from a combination of picking date, yield, acidity levels, extraction and oak management.
Whole-bunch was, as ever these days, a talking point. On the one hand whole-bunch increases the pH (due to potassium content in the stems), yet advocates of the method argue that it brings a sense of freshness of its own, with a saline character, as well as a distinct aromatic profile that they are looking for. Some producers therefore increased the proportion in 2022, such as at Tortochot, Duroché and Olivier Bernstein, with the latter doing so because they felt the stems were sufficiently ripe (another point of discussion among producers, which some say is relevant and some say isn’t). At Bouchard, Frédéric Weber felt whole-bunch was necessary to give more delicacy to the wines and that, despite the increased pH, “You have to trust in the terroir.” Fourrier echoed this, choosing to use 15-20% to retain freshness and elegance in the wines, while Clos de Tart knows that the low potassium levels in their vineyards allows them to use whole-bunch without fear. At Denis Mortet, Arnaud Mortet uses significant proportions of whole-bunch on his Marsannay, Fixin and Bourgogne, because the natural acidity of the wines allows him to.
Benoît Stehly (Georges Lignier) de-stemmed 90% of his fruit, as he did in 2021, noting that the berries had lots of large, brown pips, four rather than two (something he attributed to the perfect flowering). With these in the mix, he feared the tannins could be astringent, and decided to de-stem more.
Charles van Canneyt is one of the producers who avoids the technique, having trialled it on his Passetoutgrains, convinced that its impact on pH simply isn’t worth it, especially in warm vintages. At Faiveley, meanwhile, Flous highlighted that he avoided whole-bunch on any of their Gevrey-Chambertin parcels hit by hail.
As one vigneron told us, whole-bunch has become so fashionable that many producers talk about it, but when he sees the pomace being spread in the vineyards, somehow there isn’t a stem in sight. We have to trust in what producers tell us, but it’s always worth taking things with a pinch of salt.
Beyond whole-bunch fermentation, extraction methods also differed. Some favoured pumping over (Heresztyn-Mazzini, Audoin, for example), while others looked to use gentle punch-downs to wet the cap (as at Bouchard). Whichever method was used, the goal was the same – gentle extraction to avoid overly firm tannins. At Bouchard, they reduced the maceration times for the reds (to between 10 and 15 days), while Henri Boillot feels his style of “vinification intégrale” – fermenting and macerating the fruit in barrel – was key. His Pinot Noir spends between six and seven weeks on skins, however the barrels are only rolled (rather than punching down or pumping over) and with careful temperature control (up to a maximum of 27˚C).
When it came to élevage, most have kept the proportions of new oak the same, with a few producers deciding to reduce it (such as at Heresztyn-Mazzini, Au Pied du Mont Chauve, Domaine de Bellene and Maison Roche de Bellene). Maxime Cheurlin (Domaine Georges Noëllat) went for less new wood, but opted for a higher toast on the barrels he did use – with the idea to bring more mid-palate weight and density, without marking the wine aromatically.
Classicists will love the moderate alcohols found across the board in the reds. While Duroché’s early-picked wines sit around 12%, most of the wines are between 12.5 and 13.5%, with a handful of the Grands Crus reaching 14%. Even in these, the alcohol never stood out – seamlessly integrated with the fruit. As we’ve touched on, pH levels could be high, but it’s far from uniform. Nicole Lamarche’s wines have a meagre 3.2-3.4pH (something she feels is due to how she farms, but is also reflective of her approach of picking on acid rather than sugar), while the majority fall between 3.5 and 3.6, and some reach up to 3.9.
“I am very happy – but it is also a big surprise,” said Cyril Audoin of the 2022 vintage. He was one of several producers who highlighted how the wines had gained finesse during élevage, going from something bold and impressive, to a more classic, complex and refined year. Florence Heresztyn argues that it’s a year that, with its sheer deliciousness, will have broad appeal, not just to collectors and connoisseurs. As Jacques Devauges at Domaine des Lambrays noted, the wines show an intensity and energy, with “matière” that is hard to compare to previous years.
“Personally, I think it’s a charming vintage,” said Charles van Canneyt, humbly. For him, it’s the balance that makes the wines so approachable but also equips them for the cellar. The wines are more classic and transparent than those of 2018, ’19 or ’20, fresh, “digeste”, and with great purity of fruit – the freshness recalling 2012 or 2010, for him.
There are undoubtedly parallels with 2020, however as Marianne Duroché explained it is not at all as “hyper-solaire” as that vintage, for her a little closer to 2019. For Jérôme Flous at Faiveley, it’s “a very special vintage”, one that was saved by the June rain, allowing for 20% more crop than 2022 and, as a result, more balanced fruit. For him the wines are fresh, aromatic, both approachable and with ageing potential. For him they recall a blend of 2018 and 2017, although they are significantly lighter than the 2018s.
For Fourrier, the volumes may recall 2018, but the quality is possibly a combination of 2009 and 2015 – having good density but better freshness than either of those years. There’s a definite seamless ripeness to the fruit, but without being sweet; Marianne Duroché noted how the 2022s are somewhat like 2019 but without the same “sucrosité”, and Richard Séguin (Olivier Bernstein) echoed this but referring to 2016. Tortochot pointed to 2002 and 2012, while at Bouchard, Weber looked to 2015 for the quality of fruit, terroir definition and tannin, with 2019’s gluggability. Looking further back, Cyril Audoin told us the wines remind him of 1990 – wines that have always drunk well, offering both richness and freshness.
Whichever year you choose to compare the wines to, the best 2022 reds are compelling wines that speak clearly of place, with freshness and finesse.
Burgundy 2022 in brief
Good yields generally – a healthy crop for both red and white (welcome relief after 2021)
Great wines of both colours were made
Whites offer concentrated fruit and vibrant acidity, with ripe yet classical fruit expression and good dry extract
Reds are a little more varied than the whites, with picking date and extraction management key, but the best are stunning – terroir-expressive and, as the French would say, ça pinote, offering delicacy, fine tannins and freshness as well as a core of bright fruit
Alcohol levels are moderate – with most sitting around 12.5-13.5%
The summer was warm, but, unlike in 2020, rain fuelled the vines and avoided major stress
The heat came in short spikes over several days rather than a relentless wave as in 2003
Comparisons are tricky, however the whites were repeatedly compared to 2017, with several producers suggesting they were their best ever. For the reds, yields are akin to a vintage like 2018 but with much more freshness – 2019, 2017, 2015, 2012, 2009, 2002 and 1990 were all mentioned
