To summarize my previous reporting on the 2022 Bordeaux growing season, much of June, July, and August was defined by weeks of sustained, unprecedented heat and drought. Isolated incidences of frost and hail in parts of Sauternes early in the season accounted for smaller crops for individual producers. Otherwise, as elsewhere in Bordeaux this year, Sauternes’ berries were small, and the skins were notably thick. 

By early to mid-September, the grapes were very ripe and concentrated, but because it had been so dry, there was no Botrytis in sight at this stage.

“Sweet white wine producers’ nerves were once again put to the test in 2022,” commented Laurence Geny, Elodie Guittard, Dr. Valérie Lavigne, and Axel Marchal of Bordeaux University in their annual report on the 2022 vintage in Bordeaux. “While the grapes were already ripe and perfectly healthy from mid-August onwards, drought conditions prevented the development of Botrytis cinerea. The first grapes, concentrated by raisining, were picked during the second half of September but were considered unsuitable for the premium blends of sweet white wines.” 

“Our first pass was on the 20th of September,” said Suduiraut’s winemaker, Pierre Montégut. “But if you waited until the end of October for the Botrytis, as we did for the main part of the harvest, you could make something special. We finished picking on the 27th of October.”

Of course, given the erratic nature of Bordeaux autumns, waiting so late for the arrival of a fussy fungus that may never come is a risky business strategy.

But the making of a truly great Sauternes is necessarily a no-guts-no-glory endeavor. 

“At the end of September, there was a little rain, followed by warm weather,” explained local expert Bill Blatch during my 2022 Sauternes tasting with him in April this year. “So, the Botrytis really got going in mid-October, and the heart of the vintage needed to be picked mid to late October. Some didn’t use the last picks in late October because the sugars were too high by then.”

Geny et al. agreed: “By a stroke of luck, from mid-October onwards, the return to warmer temperatures and, above all, an intense easterly wind concentrated the grapes quickly and evenly. The harvesting of superb, botrytized grapes became widespread in mid-October, constituting the lion’s share of the 2022 sweet white wine vintage, both in terms of quality and quantity. The grapes were perfectly ripe, low in acidity, and quickly reached extraordinarily high sugar levels, making picking more urgent. A final pass took place in late October in the earliest plots, yielding lower quantities. As another challenging growing season drew to a close and nearly three months after the first dry white wine grapes were picked, the harvest was complete, with production volumes varying depending on the strategy chosen, yet higher overall compared to previous vintages.” 

The average yield for the Sauternes appellation in 2022 was 15 hectoliters per hectare, which may sound small but was not so terrible compared to previous vintages that were worse hit by frost and hail.

"People don’t understand how there can be such finesse this year, but there is," said Bill Blatch.

In most cases, he’s not wrong. Following my tastings, I found that the defining style feature of the 2022 sweet whites from Bordeaux is decadent richness coupled with compelling purity and, in a few cases, surprising brightness. The level of sweetness in most of the wines is generally higher than in other recent vintages. Yet, apart from a few outliers, most wines possess ample acidity to instill a sense of harmony and impressive poise on the mid-palate and finish. Crucially, the botrytized signatures are clear in the top-scoring wines, forging that distinctly complex, multi-layered effect that lovers of fully expressed Sauternes will adore.

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Article & Reviews by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
Photography by Johan Berglund