Burgfest 2022 Full Report

The Burgfest tasting of 2022 whites taught me that this is a great white Burgundy vintage that sits in the same class as 2014.  In the years to come, I expect 2024 will join ’22 and ’14 to form the front rank of vintages of the first 25 years of the century, with 2017 and 2020 just a notch or two behind.

How we taste

Burgfest follows a tried and tested formula and, thanks to the herculean efforts of our tasting manager Icy Liu – herself a talented and increasingly well-regarded winemaker – a well-oiled machine springs into action twice a year.   The regular panel of 14 tasters tackles a single vintage, at four years old, each year, meeting in May to taste white wines and September for reds.  We focus entirely on 1er- and Grand- Cru wines, from the most prestigious villages, with the samples sourced by members from the estates they work with.

Over the course of a working week we taste 250-300 wines so any omissions, such as Savigny les Beaune or Marsannay, are more the result of the practical limitations of time than deliberate exclusion.  Burgfest is an intense but well-paced event, we begin at 0830h each day and finish with a late lunch, which means we’re able to give wines a proper amount of time to develop in the glass, rather than speeding through with one eye on the clock.

The wines are tasted single blind and grouped by vineyard, or similar vineyards where we have insufficient examples of certain climats.  This means that we know we are tasting Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatieres, for example, but not necessarily which domaines have submitted samples and definitely not the serving order.  Icy randomises the flights, decants everything into carafes, juggles temperatures, records our scores, and maintains mindboggling patience and good humour throughout!

What we found

I approached our May tasting with a positive view of 2022, anticipating that we’d find wines out-performing expectations of one of Burgundy’s hottest years on record.  A couple of days in, as we were tasting Meursault and moved into a selection of the 1er Crus of Poruzots and Boucheres, it began to dawn on me that 2022 is actually a great white wine vintage of outstanding calibre.

Meursault 1er Cru Boucheres 2022 – Domaine des Comtes Lafon

This is sneaky!  A wine riding more on purity and quality of fruit than on winemaking.  What starts deceptively simple really starts to unfurl and accelerate on the mid-palate.  The orchard fruit profile is creamy and ripe, with lemon blossom elements, with a foundation of excellent supporting acidity.  It builds slowly to a mouth-watering finish.  Great potential.

95/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

I don’t have a precise definition of a ‘great vintage’ – trying to come up with one might make for an interesting article in the future – but I’m sure that consistency and consensus are important conditions for greatness.  This means that a few standout wines, no matter how epic they might be, are not enough for a year to qualify as great.  For example, Cheval Blanc 1947 is a legendary wine but the inconsistencies of ’47 Bordeaux as a whole mean that it cannot be considered an all-round great vintage.  Even more extreme, whilst there are some stunning, high acid, white Burgundies from 2021 – I rated Chartron’s Clos des Chevalier 98/100 and Neal Martin given it 96/100 – taken in the round the year lacks consistent quality, with too many wines showing a brittle and austere edge.

One of the strengths of 2022 is consistent quality, maybe not throughout the entire region, but certainly across several villages and Crus.  Corton Charlemagne, for example, is such a large and varied Cru that it often provides flights that can be up and down in terms of quality.  The 2022s were notable for not only being at a higher than average quality, but also for scores more consistently bunched together and lacking the lower scoring disappointments seen in some years.

In addition, I was not alone in my admiration of the 2022s.  The group was unanimous in holding the vintage in very high regard, as one of the finest line ups of whites we have ever tasted.  Our mean average score for all wines tasted was the highest for any vintage since 2015, my first Burgfest vintage, coming out just ahead of 2020.  Whilst I wasn’t part of the group for the 2014s, at least one member who was is of the opinion that ’22 exceeds ‘14’s quality benchmark.  I am not quite ready to make a call that big, but I do think the two years belong in the same conversation.

What’s the style of 2022?

The received wisdom is that white wines are built around a core of acid, that they need acid for structure, to age and to show the prized mineral quality of fine Burgundy.  It follows that, to have this degree of acidity, the best whites come from cooler years as grapes lose their acidity, and gain in sugar, in warmer conditions.

As mentioned previously, 2022 was amongst the hottest Burgundy vintages on record, rivalling even the extremes of 2003.  How have the wines defied all convention and achieved such high quality?  This is the contradiction at the heart of understanding the region’s 2022 whites and, do not forget: Burgundy thrives on contradiction!

The interaction of myriad, variable, factors will have been responsible for 2022’s quality but you can get a generalised understanding of what took place by focusing on three principal influences:

• Significant rainfall in mid-June was instrumental in replenishing water reserves to sustain the vines through the coming summer heat.  How much rain is significant?  In excess of 100mm in 45 minutes.  Enough to flood cellars and wash some 200 tonnes of soil from the upper slopes of Rousseau’s vineyards – which took three workmen, with diggers, two weeks to replace!
• Cooler nighttime temperatures that gave the vines some relief from the heat.  This was a crucial difference from the conditions in 2003 which remained torrid 24-7.
• Advances in viticulture, and winemaking, as domaines have become more expert in managing solar vintages in the post climate change era.

Now, these factors may have ameliorated some of 2022’s heat but they cannot create or elevate acidity beyond what nature delivers.  The 2022s tend to have moderate acidity but, again and again, they display pin-point balance and poise.  In part, this may be because it was a relatively large crop – due to ideal conditions during flowering and very little disease – with the higher yield serving to ‘dilute’ the potential for higher alcohol wines.  In addition, Chardonnay tends to perform better in larger vintages avoiding, for example, the fragility and brittle character than can be found in both 2016 and 2021 whites (both very small crops).

In common with previous plentiful, high quality, ripe vintages of moderate acidity, 2022 finds at least some of its structure and balance from dry extract and phenolics.  1982, 1992 and 2000 would be examples from the past, with the first two providing a compelling answer to questions about 2022’s potential for age – 2000 is excluded from the ageing debate because of premature oxidation issues.

In the same way that top Rhone whites, whose grape varieties are notoriously low in acid, draw freshness from dry extract, bitterness and salinity, winemakers have found alternative sources of animation and minerality in their 2022 Burgundies.

This is not a vintage of super lean or crystalline fruit expression, but the pristine condition of the grapes at harvest manifests itself in wines of superb purity.  The fruit characters are perhaps a shade riper than in 2014, for instance, but they rarely stray into the tropical remaining, instead, within the realms of white, or yellow, stone fruits.  There was no shortage of spice, perfume or blossom-scented finesse.

Trying to pin down the characteristic style of the 2022 whites has me more than a bit stumped.  There’s definitely a vintage character and, blind, I hope I could pick a 2022 on the basis of relatively ripe orchard fruit and moderate acidity in combination with fine balance and excellent quality but there’s no denying that some of the wines’ charms are down to good old Burgundy magic.

Despite everything I have written about the vintage conditions there are certain wines, whether from domaines that harvest particularly early or from cool and elevated vineyards, that thrill with an unlooked-for charge of acidity and a linear profile.  Others, seemingly from nowhere, conjure an overt tension and mineral spine that might belong to an entirely different year.  Still a third group show the incomparable texture – dripping with melted butter – that is the signature of top class terroir in a top class vintage.

Perhaps trying to classify and categorise 2022’s qualities is a fool’s errand?  It is a great vintage for white Burgundy, and that’s all that needs to be said.

Around the villages

Chablis

Overall, the group’s average scores suggest that 2022 is the best Chablis vintage of any year back to 2015, narrowly pipping 2017 – a year I missed Burgfest due to the pandemic.  My personal view is less enthusiastic and – whilst I find 2022 Chablis generous, ripe and delicious – I simply didn’t find any of the vintage’s high points here.  It is telling that I took until the latter part of the second flight to break the 90/100 barrier, even if I do continue to defend high 80s scores as belonging to very good wines.  Even more telling is the fact that I couldn’t get beyond 93/100 in the Montee de Tonnerre flight and that, of eight wines, only three of them (37.5%) exceeded 90/100.  My expectations of Chablis’ finest 1er Cru vineyard are higher than these scores reached.

In terms of average temperatures, Chablis had the warmest year of the century to date in 2022, exceeding even 2003.  Whilst the richer, more textured, wines of the Cote de Beaune seem to have shrugged off this challenge, I found Chablis struggled to achieve the nervous tension and mineral transparency – from wineglass to vineyard – of a higher acid vintage.  There are some very good wines, that will give enormous pleasure, but I did not identify that wealth or consistency of quality I found in the Cote d’Or.

Of the 1er Cru wines, my pick would be Mont de Milieu and particularly the engagingly marine and iodine-infused example from Domaine Pinson Freres.  However, it is amongst the Grand Crus that the most successful wines are to be found.  Not only was the average bar of quality noticeably raised but there was greater consistency of quality between the domaines, perhaps as the quality of terroir came to the fore and trumped the vintage.

Domaine Pinson Freres seem to have had a very successful vintage as their Les Clos was my favourite of all the Grand Crus, following the very impressive Mont du Milieu, mentioned above.

Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru 2022 – Domaine Pinson Freres

More sophisticated than most in this flight.  There’s no excess of weight or girth but it’s concentrated without being heavy.  Buttery, floral, waxy and minty qualities all combine.  Absolutely no shortage of acidity here – this is fully charged and humming with electricity.  Stunning.

96/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Saint Aubin

Having become the white wine darling of so many critics and collectors, Saint Aubin now carries quite a weight of expectation.  Some recent vintages have struggled to deliver on this; 2022 not only delivered, the wines set the tone for some of the highlights that followed from more prestigious villages.

Of 15 wines, served over two flights, very few fell below 90/100 in my ratings.  Amongst the more successful there were some thoroughly classy examples, especially from the top vineyards of En Remilly and Murgers des Dents de Chien, that continue to offer value even if prices have accelerated beyond historic levels.

One of the undisputed stars of Saint Aubin must be Domaine Hubert Lamy yet, every year, I struggle with blind tastings of these wines when young.  Lamy’s wines require quite a bit of time and there is a type of reduction that seems to render them stubbornly inexpressive and taciturn in their youth.  This was certainly the case with the Clos de la Chateniere, which I found reduced, steely and unyielding.  However, the 1er Cru En Remilly was much more generous and the Murgers des Dents de Chien even more generous and flattering.

Exceeding even those, however, was a superb En Remilly from Marc Colin, who later fielded a delicious Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Vide Bourse and an exceptional 96/100 Batard Montrachet.  A bottle of Batard 2017 shone extremely brightly at a recent dinner and this is now a domaine I’m keen to investigate further – it is worth keeping your eyes peeled for these wines.

Saint Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly 2022 – Domaine Marc Colin

Very classy and probably very easy to miss.  A masterclass in quality of fruit.  The aromas are incredibly understated and yet to develop.  It’s a slow burner on the palate but really builds and unfurls layers.  Pure and creamy, with gorgeous texture.  As the volume expands to fill the palate it starts to reveal its very considerable quality.  Outstanding.

94/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Chassagne Montrachet

In his original report on the 2022 vintage, on www.vinous.com, Neal Martin identified Chassagne as a hotspot of white wine quality.  I did not come to the same conclusion via the nearly 40 examples we blind tasted at Burgfest, however I did find peaks of excitement with one 95/100 score, two 96/100s and a fabulous 97/100.

For me, what our flights of Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru lacked was the consistent quality we were later to find elsewhere.  At the same time, there is clearly a huge amount of talent both among the new guard of producers – such as Thierry Pillot and Alex Moreau – and at more established domaines – including Jean-Claude Bachelet et File, the aforementioned Marc Colin and Olivier Leflaive.

The 2022 tasting also served to remind me of the high quality of Chassagne’s top 1er Crus.  Upslope sites such as La Romanee and Grandes Ruchottes showed excellent precision and delineation, whilst those surrounding Montrachet itself, including Blanchots du Dessus, were a cut above their peers from elsewhere in the commune.  It is worth remembering that Chassagne rarely commands the same premium as equivalent vineyards in Puligny, so these wines can represent interesting comparative value in high class Burgundy.

Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Dents de Chien 2022 – Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay

In combination with purity and intensity of fruit, this delivers a gloriously rich textural ‘fat’ that really speaks of the top Grand Cru sites – this nods to Montrachet.  The palate is about barely contained power and a sort of thoroughbred muscle.  Wonderful.

97/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Meursault

It was with Meursault that I felt 2022 really began to flex and demonstrate its true quality.  As described above, the wines from Poruzots and Boucheres set the tone but then we really hit the accelerator as we powered through Genevrieres, where we saw the first of a succession of stunning wines from Michel Bouzereau et Fils, and then Charmes.  With Les Perrieres, it felt like the after burners kicked in and our flight of 11 wines provided one of the most thrilling and memorable brackets of the entire tasting.

Charmes provided a great example of the extra gear of quality these wines found in 2022.  I found very few examples of this 1er Cru showing the weightier and more honeyed aspects of this vineyard.  Where they did nod towards the richer style typical of the vineyard, such as Vincent Girardin’s wine, they had a purity, sense of balance and finesse that prevented them from being in any way top heavy.

Widely recognised as the finest vineyard of Meursault, Les Perrieres took things up a level both in terms of quality and, crucially, consistency.  This was what was missing in Chassagne.  My average score for Perrieres was a huge (for me) 93.7 and 45% of the wines came in at 95/100 or higher.

Another impressive feature of this bracket was that there was a relatively broad spread of styles, all achieving similar levels of quality.  Roulot’s 2022 Meursault Perrieres, which will be held back at the domaine for release after its 10^th birthday, was super-chalky, mineral and lean (96/100).  At the other end of the scale, Albert Grivault’s famous Clos des Perrieres was resolutely traditional, with aromas of lemon butter spread on freshly-toasted bread and a lavish application of oak.  However, the palate delivered so many layers of cream and spice, bound together with an animating mineral thread, that this won an impressive 97/100.

My favourite Meursault Perrieres was a stunning wine from Pierre Girardin.  This domaine has a very marked signature that combines oak, spice and reductive elements, but it is so stylishly handled that it sits brilliantly within the framework of these extraordinary wines.  This surpassed many Grand Crus in terms of quality.

Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrieres 2022 – Pierre Girardin

Just stunning intersection between spice, sweetness, reduction and fruit.  All of such high quality and then leading to a wine of exceptional length and class.  Crystalline in its purity and mineral expression.  The oak is very distinctive but I love the energy, multi-faceted qualities and salinity.  Like a laser beam.

98/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Puligny Montrachet

If you have ever visited wineries in Puligny Montrachet you may have noticed how rare it Is to find traditional underground cellars.  This is because the water table is particularly high in the village, making it difficult to excavate an underground cellar.  This is in contrast with Meursault, which has a much lower water table and more domaines with subterranean cellars.

Tasting the first few flights of 2022 Puligny, there was a slight sense of disappointment following the tremendous highs of Meursault’s top wines.

The highlights of these early flights of Puligny were the 1er Cru Referts from Jacques Carillon – does he always make the finest Referts? – and a very tensile and coiled Champ Canet from Etienne Sauzet – a producer that’s been on fire in recent years.  I rated both wines 94/100.

It was not that the other wines were disappointing, but the vintage did not sing as it had in Meursault.  Discussing this, we wondered whether the very hot, dry conditions had hit differently in Puligny than in other villages?  Perhaps vines whose roots had only to penetrate to a shallow depth to access the high water table struggled more than those forced by nature to have already delved deeper to seek out less easily accessible hydration?

The tone of the tasting shifted with a short bracket from 1er Cru Les Combettes, in particular a compellingly beautiful bottle from Domaine Leflaive.  All of a sudden, 2022 was back in the room as a great vintage.  The quality uptick continued through a bracket of ten Folatieres – where the highlight was Clos des Folatieres from Alvina Pernot – and we saw a similar acceleration through Pucelles and Caillerets to that we had experienced tasting the top crus of Meursault.  Our friend Jean-Michel Chartron produced one of the absolute stand outs of Pucelles.  His monopole Clos de Pucelle was introverted on the nose but with a beautifully creamy and seductive texture, with acidity cushioned by rich, luxurious fruit.  In Cailleret, a positively electric wine from Michel Bouzereau was particularly striking.

2022 Puligny Montrachet was less uniformly brilliant amongst the 1er Crus than we found in Meursault but, once we got to the more senior vineyards the narrative changed and we once more found a wealth of very special wines.

Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes 2022 – Domaine Leflaive

Just layers of thickly and generously applied, freshly churned butter, with a super-high cream content, and a sprinkling of citrus pollen.  Could easily be Leflaive Combettes.  A wine I absolutely want to drink in 15 years and I can see how the richness will melt across the frame and the spice will sit atop bringing seasoning and interest.  The mineral frame has clean lines and high tension.

96/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Grand Crus

Corton Charlemagne is a large vineyard producing wines across a range of styles and quality levels.  The clear front runner, both for me and for the group, came from Pierre Girardin.  These wines bear a clear stamp of their winemaking, from the use of oak and reductive handling, but they have more than enough stuffing to carry this off and the net effect is tremendously impressive.  I have not tasted Pierre Girardin in the past but I now believe he is something of a hotshot and I will be actively seeking them out.

Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2022 – Pierre Girardin

Hugely stylised reduction but it’s classy and artfully managed.  I like the spice, mint and smoke.  Masses of gunflint oak but it wears it well.  Is definitely going to be divisive.  Has a bright, vivid acid.  Rewinding, you can get away with all the frills and fireworks if your fundamentals are right and, here, they clearly are.  Long, mineral and savoury.

97/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Overall, 2022 has produced an exciting vintage for Corton Charlemagne.  We tasted 19 wines.  My average score was 91.2 but this was brought down by three problematic wines, flawed by oxidation and excessive reduction.  Exclude these and my average leaps to 92.3, which is significantly higher than my usual rating of these wines at Burgfest.  In general, the successful wines felt like they had embraced the sunshine but combined it with a sense of animation and sparkle so we saw very little of the top-heaviness and leaden qualities that other years can show in this cru.

2022 reaches its zenith in the Grand Crus of Chassagne and Puligny, although Meursault Perrieres certainly gives them a run for their money.  The complexity, elan and sheer pleasure delivered by these wines was spellbinding and formed a suitable finale to an epic Burgfest tasting.

This was the finest selection of Batard and Bienvenues Batard Montrachet that I have ever tasted.  Once again, Pierre Girardin’s Batard finished top for me.  The Batard Montrachet from Domaine de la Vougeraie is probably the best white I have ever tasted from this producer and came in a close second place.

Batard Montrachet Grand Cru 2022 – Pierre Girardin

Unapologetically stylised and I happen to adore the style.  Pierre Girardin?  Gorgeous fine spice and delicate florals from the reduction.  Super-fine oak, albeit a very intense oak influence.  Acid cuts and balances.  Am totally seduced but this is going to be hugely divisive.  The scent, energy, length and sheer, rippling beauty are phenomenal.

98/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Chevalier Montrachet turned the dial several notches higher and was the crowning glory of our tasting – probably because we are privileged to taste an extraordinary nine wines from this celebrated vineyard, including several top examples, whilst we are able only to assemble a handful of wines from Montrachet itself. My mean average score for 2022 Chevalier Montrachet was an eye-popping 95.1; almost a full four points higher than my average rating of Corton Charlemagne.  However, once again, there was one Chevalier where I had a question mark over the condition of the bottle.  Remove that from the mix and my average for this flight becomes a whopping 96/100.

The magic of these wines lay in the combination of Chevalier Montrachet’s characteristic acidity and mineral energy with the fruit and richness of 2022.  My highest score went to Domaine Leflaive – for me, the single best wine of our tasting – but it was only a point ahead of a shimmering beauty of a wine from Jean Charton.

Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru Clos des Chevalier 2022 – Jean Chartron

Strikes a gorgeous balance between citrus-accented fruit, acidity, mineral tension and ripeness.  Nicely pared back in many ways, so it’s much more about the frame, structure and architecture – of the fruit, not elevage – than it is about the vintage.  Long, mineral and saline.  Builds in focus and tensile, saline length.

98/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru 2022 – Domaine Leflaive

Truly engaging, juicy, dynamic and vivid.  The quality of fruit is superb and it’s supported by the winemaking.  In a rich year, this allows minerality and floral expression to the fore.

99/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

We concluded our tasting with a quartet of wines from Montrachet.  I often struggle to understand this flight as the mass and richness of young Montrachet can sit on top of the wines’ acidity and mineral framework.  2022’s expressive personality seemed to cut through Montrachet’s fat and reveal truly compelling young wines.  My favourite example came from Comtes Lafon this year, and I do not think it is unusual to see Chartron’s Clos des Chevalier (a domaine wine) out-pace their Montrachet (a negociant bottling).  Whilst my average score for Montrachet, 95.75, was lower than that for Chevalier, the difference is almost negligible.

Montrachet 2022 Domaine des Comtes Lafon

Corresponds to Montrachet in its depth, concentration and texture.  There’s a thrilling degree of acid beneath all the mass.  Textbook but also exceeds that!

98/100 – Matthew Hemming MW

I travelled to Burgfest expecting to be surprised by the quality of 2022.  I was not prepared for a great white Burgundy vintage to rival the best I’ve ever tasted.  Commercially, 2022 was a reasonably generous crop, and certainly larger than 2021, 2024 and 2025.  This means there is likely wine in the market, so my advice is to forget about 2022 being an overly ripe and solar year, and ensure you have got a good stock in the cellar.

To repeat a phrase from much earlier in my report: 2022 is a great vintage for white Burgundy, and that’s all that needs to be said.