January traditionally sees the release of the latest Burgundy vintage. This year is the turn 2022s and with our own Matthew Hemming MW being hugely-impressed, and the critics starting to publish some compelling commentaries on the quality of the vintage, not to mention some big scores, it’s a vintage getting serious attention and worth getting to know.
Helpfully, January is not just a time for new releases, but also for tastings so I gratefully accepted an invitation from Louis Latour to attend their tasting in London this week.
We have full coverage here on the vintage following our visit late last year. However, to summarise this was a real surprise. The growing season was one of the warmest on record, something that can mean unbalanced and alcoholic wines that lack finesse, terroir specifity and age-potential. The reality couldn’t be further from this assumption. The wines, both red and white are lush, hedonistic and immediately rewarding, but also show depth, complexity and plenty of character. Miracles have been performed in vineyards and wineries up and down the Cote and result is compelling wines across the classifications.
Neal Martin sums up the vintage in his report. For him, “I cannot remember a Burgundy vintage that elicited so much joy from barrel, and I’ve undertaken this exercise for over 20 years.” In what seems a paradox, but a very good one, he adds “The style of 2022 is primed for early consumption, more than 2019 or 2020. These are open wines, not overly tannic, fresh and tensile. They’ll take over the 2017s as the vintage that entertains drinkability, though I would argue that most 2022s are superior. The travesty is that the 2022s are blessed with the balance and substance to mature exquisitely in bottle.”
The 2022s I sampled from Louis Latour almost perfectly fit this mould.
This was a fantastic tasting. All of the wines were showing superbly, to the extent that many were almost impossible to spit. As Martin mentions above, they have a near-unique profile of being both immediately accessible, while still having enough stuffing and structure to hint at great things to come. Perhaps the only negative is that they’ll be too tempting to drink young, so we won’t get to discover just how well they’ll age.
The whites I tasted were all excellent. Louis Latour’s style fits the qualities of the vintage well and the winery seems to have taken the conditions of the growing season in its stride. These are fleshly and luxurious wines, yet remain well balanced and full of energy.
The Corton Charlemagne is one of the flagships of the house and is excellent in 2022. It’s very finely tuned on the nose while long and very sustained on the mid-palate. Very complete and immediate, this is delicious already.
The Batard Montrachet is very Batard, burly and muscular. Star of the show is the Montrachet. The complexity on the nose and palate here is intoxicating, keeping you coming back for one more sniff and one more taste. Like to Charlemagne it’s stunning now but the depth here hints at a lot more to come.
The reds, like the whites are characterised by immediacy and quality. The Corton Grancey is fantastic, with plenty of pure red fruit and a long and very complete finish. The Clos Vougeot is a lovely Grand Cru this year, plush and expressive. The Chambertin just pips the Romanee-St-Vivant for me. Statuesque and very fine, it is stately yet very approachable for a Chambertin. The quality of the tannins is excellent and frame a long and exceptional finish. The RSV is always an interesting option as the vines from which is comes border those of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. It’s a touch more angular than the Chambertin and less accessible. The finish is long complete and very harmonious.
This is a fantastic set of wines from Louis Latour. Approachable and inviting, they fit the profile of the vintage superbly. They are also accessible, not just in terms of character but also in terms of price and allocations. So, if you want to dip into some of the top Crus in this exciting vintage, Louis Latour has a lot to offer.
