After a week spent in Chablis tasting 375 wines, it is clear that 2022 is a very good year – and potentially an excellent one. Although a warm and very dry vintage, yields were not excessive and, crucially, acidity is high. The resulting wines are very well balanced with a lovely combination of the freshness and minerality which typifies Chablis, combined with fleshy, ripe, stone- and tree-fruit flavours.
Coming after the very challenging growing season in 2021 (severe frosts, cold weather and rainfall leading to disease pressure), Chablis 2022 has a different style and one which will appeal both to ‘classic’ Chablis lovers as well as those looking for more generous fruit character. Top producer Vincent Dauvissat commented that in 2022 ‘the vines were recovering from 2021, and were compensating with lots of vegetative growth’. Dauvissat notes: ‘It was a very good vintage with extremely healthy grapes.’
Benoît Droin (Domaine J-P et Benoît Droin) agrees, saying ‘2022 was not too hot, with very good acidity and volume’, and characterising the vintage as a ‘combination of 2017 and 2020’. Olivier Bailly (Domaine Billaud-Simon) believes 2022 is superior to both 2020 and 2021, noting that ‘pH was very low and this has given the wines great freshness’. Bailly puts 2022 on a par with 2019, albeit two years with very different styles: ‘2019 had masses of concentration, whreas 2022 has lots of acidity to balance the ripeness.’
All of those interviewed agreed that it was important to get the picking timings right. The harvest was early and those who picked just a few days ‘late’ have produced wines with higher alcohol, more tropical fruit flavours and insufficient acidity. Didier Séguier (at William Fèvre – pictured, p72) agreed ‘there was a danger of overripeness, so the picking date was crucial’.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
According to the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB), the harvest in 2022 was a good one, particularly for Chardonnay – stormy showers arrived at judicious points through the summer, but without causing significant hail damage. BIVB has
