One of the key components to a unconfined vintage is when the petit chateaux and value wines make superb wines, which is what happened with 2022 Bordeaux. While it is well-spoken that not overly wine from every title is great, there are myriad stellar, value wines from numerous appellations from the Left Bank and the Right Bank.
As you can see from my tasting notes below, 2022 Cotes Bordeaux, as well as 2022 Fronsac and other surrounding appellations produced a number of outstanding, well-priced wines with weft that will be succulent on release, and they can age a bit as well.
Several of the reports once published contain details on the vintage and harvest, so we are not going to imbricate that here. For a complete, detailed overview and wringer of the 2022 Bordeaux vintage and harvest with producer quotes… 2022 Bordeaux Vintage, Harvest Report
All of the pursuit 2022 Cotes de Bordeaux and Fronsac wines were tasted in Bordeaux in April. Most of the wines were tasted at the property. However, a few of the wines were tasted at Negociants, Consultants or with trade groups. Whenever possible the wines were tasted increasingly than once.
2022 Alcee – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Flowers, powdered-chocolate, woebegone plums, cherries and a hint of spearmint unshut the perfume. The wine is rich, lush, full and polished on the palate, with layers of sweet, ripe, juicy plums and visionless chocolate with intensity and freshness to the fruits on the mid-palate and in the finish. The wine was produced from 100% Merlot. Drink from 2025-2037. 92-94 Pts
2022 Ampelia – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – With a cadre of plums and cherries, the wine has a spicy, peppery whet as well. You find freshness, forwardness and silky tannins, with lift in the linty finish. You can enjoy this on release and for over the next decade. Drink from 2025-2037. 90-92 Pts
2022 Chteau Canon Pecresse – Canon-Fronsac – Soft, fresh, silky, linty and loaded with dark, red fruits, chocolate and licorice, the wine is going to be succulent on release, permitting you to enjoy all of its fruits, freshness, spice and cocoa early in life. This is the final vintage for the previous owners as the vineyard was purchased in 2023. Drink from 2025-2038. 91-93 Pts
2022 Clarisse Cuvée Allegria – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Medium-bodied, sweet, red, fleshy fruits with a floral whet and a vibrant, fruit and chocolate-filled, creamy, finish. Drink from 2023-2036. 90-92 Pts
2022 Clos Puy Arnaud – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Plums and woebegone cherries with flowers, and chocolate pack the nose and mouth, which is made plane largest by all of its mineral essences, giving you a touch of salt, with its layers of visionless red fruits in the finish. The wine blends 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2025-2035. 89-91 Pts
2022 Croix Lartigue – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Medium-bodied, soft, round, and plummy with a nice touch of chocolate, licorice and espresso in this well-priced wine that is going to be ready-to-go on release. Drink from 2025-2032. 90-92 Pts
2022 DAiguilhe – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Visionless pit fruits, blackberries, flowers, and cocoa create the nose. The wine is medium-bodied, soft, sweet, polished and fresh. On the medium-bodied palate, the fruits are ripe, sweet and long, leaving you with a touch of salty chalk on the when end of the linty finish. The wine is made from 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. 14.3% ABV. Drink from 2025-2038. 93-95 Pts
2022 DAiguilhe Querre – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Medium-bodied, with a nose of incense, flowers, plums, chocolate, espresso and woebegone cherries , the wine starts off well. But, the wine is over-oaked on the palate. if it becomes largest integrated, it promises to get a largest score. The wine blends 80% Merlot with 20% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2032. 89-91 Pts
2022 DArce – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Boysenberry, visionless cocoa, flowers, spice, and crushed stones make up the nose. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, fresh, soft, and polished, with well-done red fruits, minerality, and a vibrant finish. The wine blends 90% Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2032. 90-92 Pts
2022 Dalem – Fronsac – Spices, flowers, fruits, silky tannins and layers of red and woebegone plums that are a treat to taste. The wine is medium-bodied, soft, round and delivers length and complexity in the finish. Drink from 2025-2037. 93-95 Pts
2022 De Francs L’Infini – Côtes de Francs – Creamy, lush, fresh ripe, sweet woebegone plums and cherries with chocolate, espresso and a touch of salt to the fruits finishes with freshness, linty textures and chalk. Produced from 100% Merlot, this is the top wine from Chateau de Francs. Drink from 2025-2038.. 92-94 Pts
2022 De Francs Les Cerisiers – Côtes de Francs – Soft, round and creamy, the sweet, red berries show a nice, vibrant, freshness with a crushed stone and peppery whet to their character. Drink from 2025 – 2035. 90-92 Pts
2022 De la Huste – Fronsac – Medium-bodied, fresh, linty and fruity, with sweetness to the visionless berries, soft, elegant tannins and ripe, woebegone and red plums in the finish. Drink from 2025-2032. 90-92 Pts
2022 Domaine-de-lA – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Deeply colored, the perfume is packed with flowers, woebegone plums, woebegone cherries, undecorous fruit and chocolate. Supple, creamy, fresh and polished, the finish carries on the wines theme of ripe, silky, visionless red fruits, cocoa and espresso. This is from the home property of Stephane Derenoncourt. Drink from 2025-2038. 92-94 Pts
2022 Fontenil – Fronsac – With an opaque hue, the wine opens with all the woebegone plums, woebegone cherries, chocolate, flowers and licorice you need to start your day. But with the 2022, it is the palate, with its opulent, rich, uncounted waves of perfectly ripe, mineral-driven fruits that steal the show. The finish, with its layers of velvet-edged, linty fruits finishes with salty, crushed stone accents, giving you length purity and complexity. Part of the reason the 2022 is so strong is that Le Defi was not produced this year, so all of that fruit was included this vintage. Drink from 2026-2042. 94-96 Pts
2022 Fougas Maldoror – Côtes de Bourg – Cherries and spice unshut the wine. On the palate, the wine is supple, linty and spicy, with nuances of crushed rocks and refreshing mint that comes in on the end of the finish. Drink from 2025-2036. 89-91 Pts
2022 Gigault Cuvee Viva – Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux – Floral, fruity and fresh, with soft, supple textures, the wine is medium-bodied, finishing with sweet, linty cherries and a touch of spice. The wine will be ready to enjoy on release. Drink from 2025-2032. 90-92 Pts
2022 Grands Marechaux – Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux – Flowers, oranges and cherries are hands found on the nose and palate. This is perfect for this forward, soft, medium-bodied, fresh and fruity wine. You can enjoy this on release. Drink from 2025-2031. 89-91 Pts
2022 Haut Carles – Fronsac – Woebegone cherries covered in chocolate, smoke, spice, licorice and flowers form the perfume. The wine is rich, lush and linty with espresso, visionless chocolate, plums and blackberries in the mid-palate and in the vibrant, polished finish. Drink from 2025-2034. 93-94 Pts
2022 Hostens Picant – Sainte Foy Bordeaux – The medium-bodied, fruity, forward, soft wine is round, ope,n and ready to go with its nice portfolio of sweet, ripe cherries. Drink from 2025-2031. 90-89 Pts
2022 Hostens Picant Cuvee d’exception Lucullus – Sainte Foy Bordeaux – Floral in nature, due to the large portion of 53% Cabernet Franc in the blend, the wine is creamy, round, polished, and fruity, with nice definition in the woebegone cherry and crushed stone finish. Give this a few years of age surpassing you pull a cork, and this should be an plane largest wine. Drink from 2025-2035. 91-93 Pts
2022 Joanin Becot – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Violets, plums, cherries and licorice fill the nose. From there, the medium-bodied wine is opulent, fruity, deep and dark, with elements of chocolate, woebegone plums, woebegone cherries, spice and licorice on the mid-palate that siphon through to the finish. The wine is a tousle of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. 15% ABV, 3.60 pH. Some of the vines used here stage when 1870! Drink from 2025-2035. 92-94 Pts
2022 LAurage – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Licorice, woebegone fruit, espresso, and chocolate on the nose. The wine is loaded with layers of lusciously-textured, woebegone plums, chocolate, licorice and supple, linty tannins. The wine is produced from 98% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc. 15% pH 3.8. Drink from 2025-2038. 92-94 Pts
2022 La Dauphine – Fronsac – Quite floral on the nose, the wine is moreover loaded with smoke, cherries, plums, licorice and cocoa. Creamy, soft, polished, and fresh, there is a nice salty essence in the finish providing complexity, and a touch of chocolate-mint subtracting vibrancy to the finish. La Dauphine is now one of the top wines from Fronsac. Drink from 2025-2038. 93-95 Pts
2022 La Prade – Côtes de Francs – Flowers with an ocean walkover unshut the nose surpassing you find the woebegone raspberries and touch of spice in the perfume. Medium-bodied, sweet, fresh and fruity, with fresh woebegone plums, woebegone raspberries, licorice and cherries from stat to finish. With all this fruit, you can enjoy this on release. Made from 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2036. 91-93 Pts
2022 La Riviere – Fronsac – Lusciously-textured, dark-cherries, coffee beans, and licorice once show well in the round, supple, fresh, medium-bodied, plummy wine. This is going to be simply succulent on release. But, if you indulge it a year or so for the oak to largest integrate, it is going to be an plane largest wine. Drink from 2025-2037. 91-93 Pts
2022 La Rousselle – Fronsac – Licorice, flowers and spice with woebegone raspberries and plums fill up the nose and palate here. The wine is supple, medium-bodied, fresh and sweet, with accents of chocolate, licorice, and espresso. The wine blends 60% Merlot with 40% Cabernet Franc. 14.5% ABV. Drink from 2025-2035. 90-92 Pts
2022 La Vieille Cure – Fronsac – Lush, dark, polished, fruits, cocoa, chocolate, espresso and plums are ripe, sweet, creamy, long, fresh and a pleasure to taste. You can enjoy this with pleasure on release and for flipside 12 or increasingly years without that. Drink from 2025-2038. 92-94 Pts
2022 Le Doyenné – Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux – Soft, creamy, medium-bodied, sweet and fresh, this is going to be quite nice to taste on release for all of its upfront, spicy, red berries. Drink from 2025-2032. 87-89 Pts
2022 Le Rey Argileuses Parcelles 1 et 3 – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Lush, round, polished visionless red fruits with loads of chalk unhook length and complexity. It is nonflexible to find a largest value from the Cotes de Bordeaux appellation. The wine blends 80% Merlot with 20% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2035. 91-93 Pts
2022 Le Rey Les Rocheuses Parcelles 5 & 6 – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Deeply colored, the wine opens with oceanic influences, flowers, leaves, herbs and woebegone cherries. Medium-bodied, supple, linty and fresh with a strong mineral vocalizing to the sweet, juicy plums on the mid-palate and in the backend. The wine blends 80% Merlot with 20% Cabernet Franc.15% ABV, 3.6 pH. Drink from 2025-2037. 92-94 Pts
2022 Les Charmes-Godard Blanc – Côtes de Francs – Honeysuckle, untried apples, lemons, ginger and pineapple create the nose. And on the palate, the wine is plane largest with its sweet, ripe, yellow citrus, mango, white peach and pineapple endnote. You can enjoy this for all of its sweet, ripe, fruits on release. The wine blends 60% Semillon 27% Sauvignon Blanc and 13% Sauvignon Gris. Drink from 2024-2029. 92-92 Pts
2022 Les-Trois-Croix – Fronsac – Flowers, cherries, licorice, and espresso tousle to create a supple, fresh, creamy, rich wine with minerality, lush textures and ripe, polished fruits in the lengthy finish. Drink from 2025-2038. 93-95 Pts
2022 Monbadon – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Woebegone fruits, spice and flowers show beautifully on the nose. The black, red and undecorous fruits are sweet, fresh and creamy. The tannins are soft and polished, giving you a wine ending with layers of dark, red, sweet, fresh, and spicy, fresh, pit fruits. The wine blends 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot. The wine is weather-beaten in 50% new, French oak barrels and amphora. Drink from 2025-2037. 93-94 Pts
2022 Monbadon Indie de Monbadon – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – With a nose of woebegone raspberries, red plums and a touch of flowers to form the cadre of the weft here, the wine is medium-bodied, soft, silky and fresh on the palate, with a nice sweetness to the fruits and a salty touch coming in at the end of the finish. The wine blends 51% Cabernet Franc and 49% Merlot. The wine is weather-beaten in a combination of 500 liter barrels, vats and amphora. Drink from 2025-2031. 89-91 Pts
2022 Montlandrie – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Flowers, truffles, woebegone and undecorous fruit, cocoa and licorice unshut the nose. The medium-bodied palate is round, linty and fresh, with supple, sweet, ripe fruits and a drizzle of chocolate in the mid-palate and finish. The wine blends 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% ABV, 3.85 pH. Harvesting took place September 8 – September 23. Drink from 2025-2038. 92-94 Pts
2022 Moulin-Haut-Laroque – Fronsac – Woebegone cherries, visionless plums, licorice, chocolate and espresso beans pack the nose and creamy, soft, forward, fruity palate. This should unhook pleasure for at least 10- 12 years. Drink from 2025-2037. 91-93 Pts
2022 Moulin-Pey-Labrie – Canon-Fronsac – Medium-bodied, fresh, forward, with red berries, licorice and flowers in the nose and palate. The wine is lively, with a nice touch of limestone that you can taste and feel. Drink from 2025-2037. 89-91 Pts
2022 Pitray – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – Produced from 90% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc, the wine is medium-bodied, soft, supple and creamy, with sweetness to the fruits and a touch of licorice on the backend. Drink from 2023-2032. This is the new high-end wine from Chteau de Pitray from Nina Mitjavile. Drink from 2025-2038. 91-93 Pts
2022 Pitray Les Prairies – Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – The wine opens with flowers, cherries, licorice, plums and a touch of orange floweret in the perfume. Medium-bodied, with sweet, creamy, woebegone cherries, and chocolate on the mid-palate, in the finish you find freshness and juicy plums that linger. This is the second wine of Pitray. The wine should be succulent to enjoy on release. The wine is produced from 75% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec. Drink from 2025-2032. 89-91 Pts
2022 Prieure Saint-Anne – Côtes de Bordeaux – Medium-bodied, fresh, forward and on the savory side, the red fruits are complicated by spices and a leafy, savory edge. Drink from 2025-2030. 89-91 Pts
2022 Puygueraud – Côtes de Francs – Leafy herbs, spices, flowers, wet earth and cherries are at the part-way of the nose and weft of the wine. On the palate, it is the freshness, length and cut stone minerality that stand out, starting from the mid-palate, and delivering through to the finish. The wine blends 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2037. 91-93 Pts
2022 Reaut – Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux – Licorice, woebegone cherries, and a touch of leafy herbs lead the way to a medium-bodied, fruity, olive and herb-tinted, chalky finish. Drink from 2024-2030. 87-89 Pts
2022 Reynon – Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux – Medium-bodied, forward, fruity,, and chalky with a cadre of visionless currants and peppery spice that is perfect for early drinking pleasure. Drink from 2025-2030. 87-89 Pts
2022 Richelieu – Fronsac – Opulent, lush, and creamy, the wine is loaded with dark, ripe, plums, cherries, licorice, chocolate, and espresso. finishing layers of sweet, dark, red pit fruits and cocoa on the mid-palate and in the endnotes. Drink from 2025-2037. 91-93 Pts
2022 Roc de Cambes – Côtes de Bourg – Deeply colored, the nose is packed with blackberries, plums, flowers, savory herbs, cigar box and espresso. Earthy, meaty, chewy, sweet, red it fruits, savory herbs and spice fill the medium-bodied mid-palate and vibrant finish. The wine blends 80% Merlot with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. ABV 15% 3.8 pH. Drink from 2026-2040. 93-95 Pts
2022 Villars – Fronsac – Flowers, and all the chocolate-covered plums you can eat are all over the place. The wine is creamy, supple and vibrant, with sweetness, lift and ripe, deep fruits in the mid-palate and in the finish. Drink from 2025-2038. 92-94 Pts
2022 Vrai Canon Bouche – Canon-Fronsac – Soft, polished, round, linty woebegone and red fruits are all over the place here, in the nose and in the sweet, fruity, linty finish. You can enjoy this with pleasure on release. Drink from 2025-2036. 90-92 Pts
We are standing our coverage of 2022 Bordeaux with increasingly 2022 Right Bank value wines and petit chateaux. Up next, 2022 Bordeaux Superieur followed by 2022 generic Bordeaux AOC wines.
