The Top 10 Wines 2022 and The Best Wine 2022 (10-12-2022 by Robert Jonasson and Nenad Jelisic)
This is the tenth year in a row that NJ Wines presents the 10 best wines of the year and this time in close cooperation with Robert Jonasson (Wines We Love).
Is this the shortest year ever? The time flies and now it is time to close another wine year with a list of the best wines of the year. Since the restrictions were completely lifted during the year the most of trade wine tasting events have, happily enough, been resurrected. This has meant that Wines We Love has tasted many wines during the year and there has been fierce competition in the top 10 wines this year. All in all, Wines We Love together with NJ Wines have tasted around 3,300 wines during the year. Wines We Loves' and NJ Wines' most important criterion to include a wine on the top 10 wines 2022 is of course the wine's quality, but availability on the world market also plays a role.
This year, Bordeaux has shown what they are capable of. Winefinder's tasting of primeur wines and older vintages from Bordeaux was without a doubt the tasting of the year and as many as seven wines from there made it onto the list of the top 10 wines 2022. It was extra fun that a sweet white Bordeaux-wine made it high on the list. It has been a very long time since a Sauternes-wine entered the list. The only winery that got two wines on the list was Cos d'Estournel, with the vintage 2012 and 2017. Add to that a wonderful Clos de Vougeot 2019 from Domaine Henri Rebourseau, a brilliant Barolo Vigna Rionda Riserva 2016 from Massolino, a concentrated and complex Redegaffi 2020 from Tua Rita, a flavourful and well balanced Saint-Julien 2012 from Château Léoville Poyferré and the list is complete.
Unfortunately, this year no wines got the highest rating i.e. 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points). The quality of the best wines has nevertheless been very high, which made it difficult to select the top 10 wines 2022.
The Top 10 Wines 2022
1. Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, 2010, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (96 points of 100 points),
2. Château Suduiraut, 2015, white sweet blend wine, Sauternes, Graves, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (96 points of 100 points),
3. Domaine de Chevalier, Rouge, 2017, red dry blend wine, Pessac-Leognan, Graves, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (95 points of 100 points),
4. Domaine Henri Rebourseau, Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru, 2019, red dry wine, Gevrey-Chambertin, Côte de Nuits, Bourgogne, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
5. Cos d’Estournel, 2012, red dry blend wine, Saint-Estèphe, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
6. Massolino, Barolo, Vigna Rionda, Riserva, 2016, red dry wine, Serralunga d’Alba, Barolo, Piemonte, Italy, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
7. Cos d’Estournel, 2017, red dry blend wine, Saint-Estèphe, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
8. Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, 2017, red dry blend wine, Saint-Julien, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
9. Tua Rita, Redigaffi, 2020, red dry wine, Suvereto, Tuscany, Italy, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (94 points of 100 points),
10. Château Léoville Poyferré, 2012, red dry blend wine, Saint-Julien, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (90 points of 100 points).
The Best Wine 2022
Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, 2010, red dry blend wine, Pauillac, Haut-Médoc, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 4,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (96 points of 100 points)
The best wine of the year comes this year from Bordeaux and Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Pauillac. Vintage 2010 is the best vintage of Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, which Wines We Love has tasted so far, and it is extra fun that the vintage has developed into a Bordeaux wine of the absolute highest class. The wine has an incomparably complex aroma with open dark, full-bodied fruit such as plum, blackcurrant and dark ripe cherry. Add to that freshly roasted coffee, and cedar and tobacco notes. The flavour is nuanced, but at the same time full-bodied, with ripe dark fruit, coffee and cedar. The toasted oak notes have been integrated very well and the tannin structure is delightfully silky. The aftertaste is infinitely long. Although the wine is 12 years old, there are both fruit, acidity and tannins for it to be aged for another 5-10 years. However, there is no major reason to wait as it is already so superb.
The Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2010 is a perfect food companion. Enjoy it with a grilled entrecôte, homemade béarnaise sauce and French fries or why not with roast lamb with herbal red wine sauce and potato gratin. Other delicious food combinations with the wine are red wine-braised beef cheeks with truffle potato purée and roast venison with creamy chanterelle sauce, blackcurrant jelly and Hasselback potatoes. To get optimal conditions to enjoy this wine, it should be served at 18-19°C in a Bordeaux glass of better quality. If possible, in glass from Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Spiegelau or Riedel. The wine benefits from being decanted one to two hours before serving.
Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, or Pichon Comtesse as it is often called, is the neighbour of Château Latour, which should ensure good conditions for producing high quality wines. Since 2010, Pichon Comtesse has been working according to biodynamic principles in the vineyards. The property has 102 hectares of vineyards distributed over 100 different vineyard plots. The soil in the vineyards is well-drained and consists mainly of gravel with a subsoil of clay. The grape blend in the vintage 2010 consists of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. The grapes for the wine are harvested by hand at optimal ripeness. After very careful selection in both the vineyard and the winery, each vineyard plot is vinified separately. After destemming and crushing, the grape mass, which consists of crushed grapes and grape juice, is macerated/fermented, in stainless steel tanks. For the main wine of Pichon Comtesse, wines from 70 of the vineyard plots are blind tasted. Only those considered to be the best are used in the final blend of the wine. The wine is aged for 18 months in 225 litres French oak barrels (barriques) of which 60% are new. Finally, the wine is bottled and then aged for another 1 to 2 months before it is released in the market
