It’s not so easy to write about my experience tasting the 2022 wines from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti from barrel. I have tasted every vintage from bottle from 1985 to 2017. Additionally, beginning in the early 1990s, I have tasted every vintage from barrel up to the 2018 vintage. Tasting the 2022s was my first time back at the Domaine to taste from barrel since tasting the 2018s in 2019.
So from the foregoing, you can see that I have tasted many great vintages and many great wines from the Domaine. Consequently, when I say that I came away from my tasting of the 2022s feeling that it was the most impressive set of wines I’ve ever tasted there, that is a statement that means something. That said, as I pointed out in my introduction to the vintage overall, there are serious shortcomings to comparing wines across periods of time, just as there are to comparing paintings, music, literature, and so on across time:
"producers in a given era are responding to environments, problems, and questions that are of their era and not the same as those faced by producers in a different era. For wine, there is no question that global warming has changed the game in recent years and continues to do so. In particular, for Burgundy, the prospect of a vintage without sufficient ripeness is almost unthinkable these days, whereas the prospects of wines with excess alcohol and ripeness of fruit and deficient acidity are constant challenges.”
That said, Aubert de Villaine compares the vintage to 1959, a great and abundant year of wines that impressed and drank well immediately and where the greatest can still offer astonishing experiences.
Bertrand de Villaine, who has now taken over from his uncle Aubert de Villaine, said that the Domaine has been making various changes to deal with global warming. For example, in the past, dried berries were added back to the grapes to be fermented for their sugar, but the sugar no longer is needed.
After a small 2021 due to frost damage, a generous 2022 was expected — if all other elements went well — because the vines compensate that way. There was hot and mostly dry weather through mid-August, resulting in a an early bud break and an early and rather rapid flowering (the rapidity being important for uniformity of maturity at harvest time). By August, some vines had ceased to continue to progress in maturity, but rain from 15-18 August was just what was needed to remedy the problem.
Harvesting began on 30 August with the Corton. For 2022, all the reds are 100% whole cluster. The reds finished their malolactic fermentations in late April, but the whites were still fermenting when I visited in the first week of June. (I did taste the partially-fermented Corton-Charlemagne, reported below and not the definitive blend, but not the Montrachet). Also, because the Corton was in a different cellar, I did not taste that wine.
The estate, of course, has long been organic and biodynamic.
2022 Echézeaux
Perfumed nose of great complexity; some oak is noticeable, but it is not bothersome. The mouth is pure with dark fruits, a sensuous texture, length, complexity, and overall great harmony and finesse. Harvested 11, 12, 13 September. (95-97)
2002 Grands-Echézeaux
The sandalwood nose, that is a hallmark of Grands-Echézeaux is clearly present here. The mouth is richer and more enveloping than that of the Echézeaux, and the wine has more structure, too. The freshness is most notable. This is the greatest Grands-Echézeaux of my experience. Harvested 2, 3, 4 September. (96-98)
2022 Romanée-Saint-Vivant
My first thought on tasting this wine was, “how can this wine be so great, when there are still three more to follow it?” The nose is explosive with dark fruits and spice that characterize Romanée-St-Vivant. The mouth is dense and penetrating with spicy dark fruits and great purity, and it, too, is explosive. Potentially the greatest Romanée-Saint-Vivant of my experience. Harvested 7, 8, 10 September (the 9th was a day of rest) (98-99)
2022 Richebourg
The Richebourg is of a different composition from those I have tasted in the past: the Domaine owns vines in both the Les Richebourgs and the Les Veroilles ou Les Richebourgs lieux-dits, both of which form the climat Richebourg; but the Les Veroilles vines have been ripped out, half replanted in December of last year, and the other half is currently unplanted. The wine has the dramatic dark fruits typical of Richebourg with fireworks going off in the mouth. It is smooth in texture with freshness. It is also less open than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant today, and so shows less detail and more power than the RSV. But there is no doubting that this will be a very great wine. (98-99)
2022 La Tâche
So, yes, how can anything be better than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant or the Richebourg? Well, here we have dark fruits that are deep, immense, and spicy, but in a different way from the Romanée-Saint-Vivant, which seems lacy in comparison. The flavors are clearly delineated and the wine has extraordinary depth, purity, freshness, and complexity. The velvet quality of the texture is amazing. There was a substantial patch of La Tâche that was replanted in 2011 and 2012 and some grapes from those vines are now being included in this wine. Harvested 4, 5, 6 September. (99)
2022 Romanée-Conti
Following Romanée-Conti after La Tâche inevitably invokes the concept of yin and yang. The nose shows plenty of small spices or Vosne spice. The wine is pure, deep, and spheric with calm that opposes La Tâche’s power and expressiveness. In the mouth, the wine is endless. Harvested 1 September. (99)
2022 Corton-Charlemagne
When I tasted this wine (from a drawn-off barrel sample), the malolactic fermentation was only about 80% complete and the wine from the highest parcel had not yet been blended in. But there was still plenty that one could see. The wine is round, pure and deep with the tension, energy, and minerality one expects from Corton-Charlemagne. It is penetrating, racy and long with quince fruit. J=
Harvested 8 and 13 September. (95-97)