Not all the appellations were equal in terms of weather conditions!

The start of vegetation was even across the vineyards, with bud-break dates back to normal compared to last year. Foliage development was relatively rapid in all the vineyards. The vintage was already looking very promising.

However, from 25 May onwards, heavy and continuous rainfall occurred until 15 June in the Entre-deux-Mers region. The duration of this rainfall had major consequences in epidemiological terms,  mildew finding ideal conditions for its proliferation.

The Château Bonnet vineyard was severely affected by attacks from this fungus, rarely seen to such an extent in our region. Red grape varieties were hit the hardest (60% loss of Merlot, in particular). White grape varieties did much better overall. The plant health campaign was particularly complicated and required a great deal of human involvement.

In the vineyards of our other appellations, mildew was virtually a non-issue, thanks to better-distributed rainfall.

Château de Barbe Blanche (currently converting to organic farming), the vineyards were managed well, with organic treatments well under control. By the end of August, a very good harvest was in view. However a severe drought (only 5 mm of rainfall between 1 August and 30 September) compromised part of the harvest, resulting in low yields of around 28 hl/ha.

As for the Pessac-Léognan appellation, it arrived at harvest time without any problems, with grapes of excellent quality and very good volume.Although the quantity varies greatly from one appellation to another, the high quality of this 2023 vintage is a reality everywhere.

The aromatic magic of 2023 whites

Unlike in previous years, the summer of 2023 was not a hot one. July and August were marked by relatively cool nights and warm but not excessive days. This situation enabled us to obtain remarkable aromatic potential, particularly in the whites. Our Sauvignon Blancs from Pessac-Léognan offer us this very intense aromatic magic. The lack of hot weather helped to promote freshness, another characteristic of this vintage.

• Château Bonnet: All the vats taste very well and are very consistent in terms of quality. The aromas are very seductive, already very intense on the nose. The aromatic potential is present and the blends promise to be particularly interesting.
• Château de Cruzeau: A calm year for this estate, with good quality, attractive aromatic profiles and large volumes (or at least back to normal).
• Château Couhins-Lurton: The berries were picked with the precision of a goldsmith, allowing us to capture all the aromatic richness of the grapes produced on this exceptional terroir.

Intense fruit and colour for the 2023 reds

For the reds, the cool nights and warm days had the same effect on the aromas, but also had a favourable impact on the synthesis of anthocyanins, which are present in large quantities and easily extracted… This resulted in juices with very deep colours. A relatively limited temperature range provided the vines with good conditions for the synthesis of all the phenolic compounds: in addition to these intense, deep colours, they have a very fine structure and a very fruity, expressive nose.

The very fine weather in September was very kind to the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which were able to reach perfect ripeness.

• Château Bonnet: The pleasant surprise here comes from the Cabernet Sauvignons, which despite their appearance (very small berries, similar to blueberries) produce very colourful, fairly structured wines with plenty of fruit. They taste very well. They should make fine red Entre-deux-Mers (2023 being the very first vintage of this AOC).
• Château de Barbe Blanche:  Small quantities, but high quality potential.
• Château de Cruzeau: First harvest of Petit Verdot. This should be included in the Château de Cruzeau blend.
• Château de Rochemorin: The Merlots harvested are very homogeneous. The Cabernet Sauvignon has reached perfect ripeness and has a very fine structure. The Cabernet Francs are just delicious.
• Château La Louvière: Here, the rainfall at the end of the season was particularly beneficial to the Cabernets. They are very dark, with lots of fruit and no vegetal overtones. The tannic structure is there, without being rustic. Great Cabernets!
• Château Couhins-Lurton: The Merlots at Couhins-Lurton have very low Ph levels, with acidity and freshness that are well-balanced with the alcohol content. Modifications to the trellising and more intensive tillage are all positive elements that are now found in the Cabernet Sauvignons.

In the winemaker’s memory, 2022 will have been a particularly atypical year due to extreme climatic conditions:

• A very early spring frost (4/6th April) impacted the vineyard just as the vines were starting to bud and damaged the main buds. The plants regrew secondary buds with a large quantity of bunches, berries, but also empty bunches … A late winter pruning on 2/3 of our vineyards has nevertheless limited the damage.
• A long period of exceptional drought followed. It started very early, in May and lasted until the end of September. The cumulative rainfall for the first 9 months of 2022 was 315/320 mm of water compared to 600 mm in a normal year!

Very low yiels

These extreme weather conditions resulted in particularly low yields (between 30 and 40% losses):

• For the Pessac-Léognan vines, both whites and reds, yields are around 30hl/ha with the exception of Château de Cruzeau, with more clayey terroirs, with yields of around 42/43 hl/ha);
• In Entre-deux-Mers, at Château Bonnet both whites and reds, the yield is 40hl/ha;
• Only Barbe Blanche vineyard did well, with 45-47 hl/ha. This can be explained by late pruning of the vineyard and the higher altitude of its vineyard.
• On very clayey soils, where the roots of the vines were deep, yields are a little better and the dryness of the vineyard is less, the drought had less impact.

Vines reacts to climate change. An exceptional year like 2022 of drought, the plants quickly adapted. To compensate the lack of water, it drew on the water contained in the grape berries, starting on 20 August. On August 15th, a fairly significant rainfall in Pessac-Léognan was particularly beneficial, giving a good boost to the grapes the end of the veraison and the ripening process.

A perfect state of health offering ideal harvesting conditions.

One year is not the same as the next … If 2021 was a difficult year in terms ofhealth, the 2022 vintage is the opposite.

All the vineyards arrived at harvest time in perfect. This situation gave our teams the luxury of being able to choose precisely and without haste the ideal harvest date for each parcel.

However, it was part complicated to choose harvest dates, due to a discrepancy between the technological maturity (sugar content, acidity, PH in the grapes) and phenolic maturity (skin and seed maturity). Phenolic ripeness was a little long to corne, due to the climatic conditions (especially for the white varieties).

Most of the time, our teams took the risk ofwaiting and this gamble paid off in the end. These 2022 harvests were particularly spread out in time, starting on 18 August and ending on 11 October.

2022 Vintage: exceptional quality potential!

Small quantities, but exceptional quality is expected from all our properties. The 2022 vintage looks extremely promising.

White grapes

• The juices are a little ri cher in sugar than in previous years.
• In terms of degrees, at Château Bonnet we should be around 13° instead of 12.5° (in a classic year).

Red Grapes

2022 is undoubtedly the Big Year for red wines: everything is generous.

This type of vintage, which is very special, required great precision and finesse in terms of extraction, especially at the end of alcoholic fermentation. The trap would have been to fall into over­extraction. The wines are already very rich in tannins, anthocyanins and phenolic compounds. We obtain very rich juices everywhere. The alcoholic degrees are slightly higher than for a classic year; acidity and freshness are also present. Because of the slightly less juicy grapes (due to the dryness), there is a marc to juice ratio, with more skin than juice, which gives particularly coloured wines.

• The wines of Château de Barbe Blanche, with their almost black purple colour, are of exceptional quality.
• At Château de Cruzeau, our Carménères are particularly successful.
• The Rochemorin vineyard is without doubt the one that has suffered the most from the drought (40% loss of volume). But this terroir still offers us some amazing things: qualitatively, the wines are indeed very homogeneous, with freshness and a very nice balance in the mouth.
• At Château La Louvière, the best of the grape varieties are also present. The wines here are very colourful, very fruity, with very classic and relatively moderate degrees (13°5, no doubt a specificity linked to the terroir).
• For the reds grapes of Château Couhins-Lurton, 2022 is synonymous with excellence. Here again, an exceptional terroir and vinification in small containers are major assets.

If we are to compare, 2022 could rival the 2010 vintage, which was particularly successful in Bordeaux … but with less generous yields, which undoubtedly played on the very high quality of its wines.