High 100 Wines of France 2022

This 12 months’s High 100 Wines of France checklist celebrates the incredible 2019 classic in Bordeaux. Of the greater than 5,500 French wines the JamesSuckling.com crew tasted this 12 months, the 1,500 or so Bordeaux 2019s stood out for his or her high quality of fruit, construction and freshness. And standing atop all of them is our French Wine of the Yr, the Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte Pessac-Léognan 2019. It leads the cost of 53 Bordeaux wines from the 2019 classic within the prime 100.

The 2019 Smith-Haut-Lafitte is a thought-provoking wine, exuding placing cabernet character with intense lead-pencil, asphalt and graphite notes, adopted by a creamy, cashmere-like texture on the palate and superbly built-in tannins. The vineyard achieved this by discovering “the proper level of ripeness within the winery,” in accordance with Fabien Teitgen, Smith-Haut-Lafitte’s technical director.

BORDEAUX 2019: Fabien Teitgen of Smith-Haut-Lafitte discusses “the final simple classic we did.”

Teitgen defined that the classic – the center of the incredible trio of 2018, 2019 and 2020 – was heat, particularly in August, giving creaminess and fullness to the wines, however with extra freshness and acidity than 2015 due to cooler nights.

“I believe ‘19 is [like] ‘15 with one thing extra in it for us at Smith-Haut-Lafitte: extra focus of tannin, extra within the physique and a bit extra within the freshness,” Teitgen stated. He attributed a part of this to the simple season, facilitating administration of their organically- and biodynamically-farmed vineyards. “We had no drawback within the vineyards, so we have been in a position to push the grapes to full ripeness, however not overripe.”

At No. 2 is the Château Haut-Bailly Pessac-Léognan 2019. With an especially fragrant nostril of moist earth, stone, graphite and black fruit, in addition to linear and superb tannins, it’s maybe the perfect Haut-Bailly that we’ve got tasted and displays the precision within the vineyards, that are additionally managed organically and biodynamically. As director Veronique Saunders described it to us, “It’s a classic with lovely definition and that everyone will love.”

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF FRANCE 2021

Throughout our tastings over the previous 12 months, we gave 9 Bordeaux 2019 wines 100-point scores, together with the primary progress Chateaux Margaux, Lafite, and Haut-Brion (pink and white) from the left financial institution, and Cheval Blanc, Ausone, L’Église Clinet, Lafleur and Le Pin from Saint-Emilion and Pomerol on the correct financial institution. Most are on the checklist beneath, from Château L’Église Clinet at No. 17 to Château Lafite Rothschild at No. 100. Their rankings take affordability into consideration; Le Pin and Lafleur have been excluded due to their extravagant costs.

Whereas essentially the most collectable names might be out of attain to most wine lovers, our No. 1 and No. 2 French wines of 2022 are near-perfect choices at simply over $100 a bottle, combining distinctive high quality with accessibility. Furthermore, the classic was launched en primeur within the first 12 months of COVID at a comparatively low general value level, and the bottles stay reasonably priced as we speak.

Their breathtaking high quality goes to indicate that, however the rise of unbelievable cabernets and merlots from hotter California and Tuscany in the previous couple of a long time, Bordeaux nonetheless units an ordinary on the planet of superb wine. And it has developed with the instances, with better precision than ever in viticulture and winemaking, in addition to being blessed with a string of incredible vintages from 2014 to 2020. Time will inform, after all, however these younger wines have introduced us a lot pleasure already whereas displaying the construction and depth to cellar for a lot of a long time to return.

Burgundy was our runner-up area this 12 months with 12 wines on the checklist. Solely half are grand cru wines, together with the proper Louis Latour Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvée Héritiers Latour 2020 and Bouchard Père & Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru Domaine 2020, at No. 16 and No. 61, respectively. However with ever-soaring costs for essentially the most well-known websites within the Cote d’Or, as demonstrated throughout this 12 months’s record-breaking Hospice de Beaune public sale, we’re extra impressed with the value-for-money bottles that be discovered from less-esteemed, cooler appellations like Marsannay and Fixin, that are producing riper wines in recent times due to world warming.

The three^rd-place finisher is simply such a wine. The Domaine Charles Audoin Marsannay Les Favières 2020, described by Senior Editor Stuart Pigott as outmatching many 2020 grand cru pink Burgundies, is of staggering focus and finesse, with a deep core of forest berries and an nearly countless end.

The main target at Domaine Charles Audoin is on single-vineyard bottlings from Marsannay, all organically and meticulously farmed, together with their one-hectare parcel referred to as Les Favieres. It’s readily discovered for about $60 a bottle and is an instance of the potential of extra northerly or higher-altitude websites within the face of local weather change.

Numbers 4, 5 and seven in our High 10 are from Alsace – scorching on the heels of Burgundy with 11 wines on the checklist beneath. At a median value of simply $55 a bottle, these grand cru rieslings and pinots provide super worth. The 4^th-place Albert Mann Pinot Noir Alsace Grand H 2020 is an ideal wine that speaks for Alsace’s pinot noir revolution, hailing from the small city of Wettolsheim close to Colmar. It’s staggeringly lengthy and seamless and is produced utilizing greater than 50 p.c entire clusters from biodynamically grown vines within the grand cru Hengst.

READ MORE BORDEAUX ANNUAL REPORT: UNICORNS CUSHION 2021’S ROUGH RIDE

The market should still be fixated on Burgundy, however we’ve got been championing the highest Cru wines of Beaujolais for some time now. They rival the grand crus of the Cote de Nuits, like our No. 9 wine, Les Héritiers Saint-Genys Morgon En Ruyère 2020, which has immense focus, energy and growing older potential, from the third in a trio of heat vintages within the area (see our annual Beaujolais report). Les Héritiers Saint-Genys is a label from Domaine de Lathevalle, whose crew is Burgundian and Beaujolais, with marketing consultant winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt from Bordeaux. En Ruyère 2020 could be discovered at a surprisingly reasonably priced value of $25 and is effectively worthy of its place amongst our High 10. Take a look at the opposite 5 Beaujolais cru on the checklist from Yohan Lardy, Domaine Anita, Chateau des Bachelards, Domaine Mee Godard and Jean-Marc Burgaud for wines providing an unbelievable quality-to-price ratio.

The Maison Champy Corton-Rognet Grand Cru 2020 is our No. 10 French wine and at $140 a bottle is essentially the most reasonably priced grand cru Burgundy on our checklist (except for a grand cru Chablis at No. 94, La Chablisienne Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 2020. From organically grown pinot noir on the northern tip of the appellation, it’s a remarkably silky, elegant and floral Corton, but with the construction that ought to simply enable a long time of cellaring.

Beautiful wines from Rhone additionally function on the checklist this 12 months. Take a look at the flawless M. Chapoutier Ermitage L’Ermite 2019 at No. 11 for pure syrah at its finest, in addition to seven wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, together with the enveloping and indulgent Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin 2020 (N. 42) and one glorious worth Gigondas, Les Pallières Gigondas Les Racines 2019 (N. 68). These are principally from the nice and cozy, dry 2019 and 2020 vintages, however for a more energizing, extra elegant Châteauneuf-du-Pape, try the Domaine de la Solitude Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vin de la Solitude 2019 (No. 56), a singular counoise-based mix.

As for Champagne, we made an exception on our checklist for the Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle Les Réserves N.20 NV, which got here in No. 67. Solely a number of hundred magnums have been produced, but it surely blew us away after we tasted it within the Laurent-Perrier cellars this summer time. It’s a fancy mix of 1999, 1997 and 1996, and it spent 21 years on lees. A few different 100-point wines from Henri Giraud and Krug weren’t included due to their extraordinary value, however could be present in our annual report. The opposite eight on the checklist are classic Champagnes that may give a lot pleasure now or in years to return.

Observe: You’ll be able to kind the wines beneath by classic, rating and alphabetically by vineyard title. It’s also possible to seek for particular wines within the search bar.

– Claire Nesbitt, Affiliate Editor