Château Carbonnieux 2022

The 2022 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 98/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Three heatwaves and extreme drought gave, against all odds, wines of exceptional concentration without harshness — the great sun-drenched year.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

"After a break of a few days, we moved straight on to the reds on 6 September, with grapes that expressed their full potential during alcoholic fermentation, revealing a lot of fruit, keeping freshness and an exceptional concentration. We find record total polyphenol indices, which will allow Petit Verdot, for example, to fulfil its role as a complementary variety. The end of the harvest will come on 23 September with almost no rain; the batches are fruity and very soft for the Merlots, powerful but with an elegant tannic structure for the Cabernet Sauvignons; everything points to a great wine for laying down." - Andréa Perrin, oenologist (first impression of the red vintage)

The vintage

The vegetative cycle began with a rather early budbreak around 20 March, followed by morning frosts in the very first days of April. Late pruning and frost protection saved the vineyard: only 2%, scattered up to the top of the plateau, was affected. Bunch emergence was promising and flowering took place in very good conditions. June brought heavy rainfall, then July and August were exceptionally dry and hot, which made it possible to stop treatments completely until the harvest; disease and pest pressure was almost non-existent. The vine protected itself by blocking its development; only the young vines eventually showed signs of weakness. The grapes lacked water and the berries remained small and concentrated: yields are low in 2022, but the quality level is very high. The harvest began on 16 August and continued until 23 September.

Blend of the 2022 vintage

Figures from the 2022 sheet

• 15 % vol.Alcohol
• 32 hl/haYield
• 26 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Fermentation kinetics = 20 days in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats. Barrelling from 01/12/2022 to 15/12/2022. 26 batches.

Ageing

40% new oak, in Bordeaux barrels - 15 to 18 months

Terroir

A great terroir is a gift of Nature shaped by the work of men. The product of an original geological past, the Garonne gravel ridge of Château Carbonnieux has been under vine for more than seven centuries. The diversity of the soils along the slopes of this gravel "bean" offers a wide range of expression capable of producing exceptional white and red wines. Such a geological foundation guarantees complexity and breadth in the wines of this Pessac-Léognan Cru Classé. Today, the Carbonnieux estate covers 170 hectares of land at the gates of Bordeaux, of which the vines occupy 92 hectares in a single block, divided equally between red and white varieties.