Château Rouget 2022

The 2022 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 97/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: The extreme drought was absorbed by the clays: a sun-driven concentration, but without the expected harshness.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. 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.

The vintage

This 2022 vintage is exceptional - and for the moment unique - in more ways than one. After a mild, dry winter, the vines began their growth cycle very early. A few spring frosts only disturbed our nights, as our late pruning protected the vines from these late frosts. The unusually high temperatures that followed in spring continued and even intensified right up to harvest. They were fortunately punctuated by welcome showers that topped up the water reserves the vines had built up in 2021. Those reserves were severely tested throughout this scorching summer: from flowering to harvest, extremely hot and dry weather characterised - almost without a break - the months of June, July and August. Our management of cover crops, the age of our vines, deeply rooted in their terroirs, and precision viticulture allowed our grapes to ripen calmly and fully until 6 September, the date of the first pruning-shear cuts by our experienced harvest team. Finished on 20 September 2022, this is the earliest harvest in the history of Château Rouget, as we wanted to keep low pH levels and still-high acidities in the face of these extreme conditions, in order to craft wines for long ageing.

Although berry size was smaller than we had estimated - resulting in low yields - the juices proved exceptional from the very start of vatting. We tasted them ripe, suave and mouth-watering, but far more refined and fresh than we had imagined after such scorching days. Picked at the right moments and vinified separately to respect our intra-parcel selection, our grapes encouraged us to be very non-interventionist during winemaking in order to preserve this brilliance throughout ageing.

All the very long-standing friends and visitors of Château Rouget tell us they have no reference point to compare this 2022 with any of the last forty vintages. The climatic hazards that marked the year prove to us once again that the vine and the people who tend it must be in symbiosis to create a great wine.

Blend of the 2022 vintage

Figures from the 2022 sheet

• 14.5 % vol.Alcohol
• 40 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Vinification in wood and stainless steel vats.

Ageing

Ageing: 30% new barrels.

Terroir

Gravelly soils mixed with clay. This soil composition, combined with an exceptional exposure, confers all the typicity, elegance and finesse to Château Rouget wines.