Perhaps I’m wrong but based on the first two articles about the blind tastings of 2022 bordeaux, I have the impression that, in general, they do not live up to the very positive feedback from the earlier tastings (en primeur and after two years in a bottle).
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I seem to remember two concerns being brought up about 2022 at en primeur time. Firstly, that the hot year produced wines that were more Napa than Bordeaux. Secondly, price.
Today’s right bank review seems to have wines that are either harsh or opulent. I am interested to see what the left bank review brings.
I didn’t do anything with en primeur for 2022, deciding to wait to see what the reviews for in bottle were and what the prices did. It has been surprising just how little 2022 there has been physically in the stores, here on the west coast of the US. I think that might be because of difficulty selling the 2021s and, of course, tariffs! Just now, I looked up a few of the 16.5 and 17 St Emilions, from today’s article, on Wine Searcher, to see if there was any good value: physical availability was on the east coast and the prices were high.
I will stick to buying older vintages, if they are at a decent price.
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It is funny how, in my impression at least, this was viewed as a stronger year on the Right Bank vs. Left bank en primeur. Looking at the Southwold notes, that is not how it turned out in bottle. There seem to be a lot more value buys on the Left Bank!
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Yes. Looks like there is value on the left bank. So I might take back my previous intention to skip.
Interesting vintage that has
powerful and hedonistic
in the tasting note for Dom de Chevalier.
While Lynch Bages has
Lighter than most. Lots of acidity and not that much tannin. Pretty rather than powerful
Powerful is not a word that comes up often in Dom de Chevalier tasting notes (Julia has it for 2014, James has it for 2010 and 2022 and Jancis has it for 2003 and 1970).
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I read all three articles yesterday (and the great one about the history of Southwold tastings). Jancis asked ‘Is Bordeaux 2022 really that good?’ and I took the answer from the articles to be ‘No’. Yes, there may be high points, but a great feature of a great vintage is consistency. If it’s inconsistent, what appears to be value might not be. Even the tasting notes are a bit inconsistent - I bought Batailley en primeur on the back of positive reviews and tasting it myself, yet in the article it’s got a 15. But if you look it up under ‘wine reviews’ there’s another review, also by JR, also blind, dated the next day which gives it 17?? And in the tasting article there are two reviews and two different scores for Lynch Bages? Notwithstanding those two examples however my conclusion from all of this, in an age of high stock levels and stable/reducing prices post en primeur, is to defer all decisions until after Southwold and make that my de facto ‘en primeur’. I’m looking forward, for example, to 2024 in two years’ time. The prices were good, but how about the quality? If it’s more 2014 than 2013 there could be value. By Jan 2028 this will be clearer in a way it simply couldn’t be in April 2025.
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another unanswered question: will they last? a few of the higher priced 2009s had a short drinking window. Or was this question indirectly answered by Jancis’ focus on GV wines, in my experience these come with narrower drinking windows.
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I fully agree regarding your en primeur stance, the last time I participated over the last 15 years was during the lockdown of 2020 when the 2019’s were offered en primeur at steep discounts.
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There are at least 10 different bordeaux that have been tasted blind on both 28/01 and 29/01 and where the scores are quite different (e.g. Montrose, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, etc.). Would be interesting to learn from Jancis what this is about (as her initials are mentioned for both days).
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Jan, you are wise - it seems to have taken me a lot longer to get to this realisation.
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Sorry not to have seen this thread before. Too much going on!
We did taste two bottles of some of these wines, still blind, which is why there are two different tasting notes in some cases. The opening sentence of my overview of the 2016s tasted blind last week is, ‘There are no great wines, just great bottles.’
Yes, I think the conclusion was that 2022 is not that consistent but that the best are riveting.
And, as usual, the left bank offers more bargains than the right - true in every vintage, largely because of the relative size of the properties - and over production at lower levels on the left bank.
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Hi Jancis, why did yoy give Hosanna 2022 a score (14) while the two bottles were clearly defective (oxydised) ? I stay confident and didn’t run tonmy cellar 
The tasting notes being inconsistent is infuriating. EP is dead. Long live whatever the hell replaces it. But I also think we need to question what the point of wine critics is when you can go 17 to 15 and back again. They’ll argue it’s justified but then if critics can wriggle about like this and blame bottle variation from a region which has generally quite reasonable consistency then I wonder what on earth they are supposed to be doing? Or indeed, what we are paying for in a reviewer? The whole thing lends credence to those outside the wine community who think it’s all a lot of nonsense.
Can’t help feeling the same urge football fans get to sing to the referee after a series of poor decisions: ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’
The problem is also that early assessments are not always good predictions. Taking a broad view of CellarTracker comments and allowing for variations in storage and regional preferences, can be more helpful
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Agreed, and a strength of cellartracker scores is also the wisdom of the crowd. Lots of reviews averaging to a score is more valuable than a review by someone who claims to have a superior palette. That though, I think, brings me back to the original point.
I feel that’s a touch harsh.
While I see your point that ultimately scoring things becomes meaningless if there’s no consistency, I far prefer the transparency of this site in terms of its reviews to others where this is denied, and if that means variation, so be it. Overall, I feel that one can’t expect too much in terms of consistency of numbers, because i. tasters are fallible humans, ii. wine has natural variation, but iii. more importantly the occasion on which we drink something makes such a difference. I’ve had glasses of white wine that I’ve thought were divine among friends on a sunny evening (and would presumably have scored accordingly) but the same wine (albeit a different bottle) has tasted rather drab on a wet February evening while cooking for the children.
That’s not a particularly original observation, but presumably that’s also the case for those tasting and scoring, however much they try to block out the atmosphere and focus on the drink. A number is a convenient short hand but it’s had the consequence of promulgating an idea of ‘objective’ quality onto a very subjective experience.
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the reviews on this website tend to be reliable but the hot vintages do not have a proven track record and tasting wine is not a science; the review of the 2016 vintage comes up soon, there have been no disappointments in my cellar.
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Sorry Robert, a professional taster should know to avoid the trap you describe. And I am convinced Team Jancis does so. On cellartracker on the other hand … It’s just an impression (I should do research) but, in general, the scores at the 4 years tasting are in general more reserved than those of the “en primeur” tasting. Could it be that, at 4 years of age, the wines (who have lost their puppy fat) are in a difficult phase ? Why, by the way, retaste the wines after 4 years and not 5 or 6 ?
Another impression of me is that at the 10-years tasting, the scores rise again and most wines confirm the “en primeur” scores.
Hosanna 2010 got a 19 at the 10 years tasting …
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I think some of you have a priori invested scores in particular and reviews in general with way too much literal authority. I think of them more as poetry than doctoral thesis. (It’s why I like Tam’s reviews so much!)
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I fully admit I purchased this beauty based on Jancis’ tasting note and score of last week. Let’s see if this forum topic is still open by the time I will taste it (2032 at the earliest) to give my feedback 
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Me too Jan, but I will taste it earlier.
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