2022 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac, France (750ml)

WINEMAKER'S NOTES:

The blend of Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2022 is again dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon (79%) demonstrating, as if it were necessary, the potential of our terroir to express the character and charm of great Cabernet. Our wine is a deep bright and intense red/purple color. The bouquet is of flowers, violets in particular, spicy and with very ripe fruits such as blueberries and blackberries. It is completed by a fresh minerality and a note of graphite. On the palate, there’s a crescendo of flavors, smooth, dense and complex. This 2022 has fine balance, notable freshness and a long finish sustained by powerful but melted tannins. Once again, this remarkable vintage allows Grand-Puy-Lacoste to demonstrate the capacity of the terroir to summon from our vines grapes with richness, complexity and elegance. This vintage is unique, impossible at the moment to compare with any other! The combination of the ripeness of the fruit and the freshness on the palate makes it a wine of real stature and great longevity.
Blend: 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot

TASTING NOTES:

The 2022 Grand Puy Lacoste was picked from 7 to 23 September and contains more Merlot due to the high quality of the fruit, matured in 75% new oak. There is 14.2% alcohol. Therefore, this lends this GPL a little more precocity and sensuality compared to other vintages, not cut from the same "classical" cloth as, say, the 2019 or 2020. Underlying this velvety veneer are enticing traits of freshly-rolled tobacco and undergrowth. The palate is medium-bodied with finely-sculpted tannins. Silky smooth in texture, so much so that it belies that backbone underneath. There is a peacock's tail of mineral-rich, quite peppery black fruit on the finish, completing a Pauillac endowed with huge potential.–Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 96-98

- Vinous, 98 pts. 

Licorice with tapenade, cassis, roasted spices and a touch of bergamot and pencil shavings. Full-bodied and structured, this has filigreed tannins in a very dusty, almost powdery form. Really youthful and long. Juicy and compact with spot-on balance. 79% cabernet sauvignon, 21% merlot.

- James Suckling, 97 pts. 

Gorgeous vibrant purple colour in the glass, deep and darkly scented, black bramble fruits, flowers, cinnamon, dark chocolate and liquorice. Firm and forward, this is generous but sleek, so you get power and concentration but also juicy liveliness, great tension and energy. I really do like the ease of this, it's not trying too hard but delivered with poise, punch and purity. An excellent wine that really over delivers - so well presented, detailed, finessed and refined but still with the strength coming at the end in the wave of liquorice, dark chocolate and wet stone terroir markers. A brilliant wine with potential to deliver such excellent drinking pleasure. I love it. 3.57pH. A yield of 38hl/ha. 60% grand vin, 40% second wine. Eric Boissenot consultant. Harvest 7-23 September. Yield of 38hl/ha. Ageing in French oak, 75% new.
Barrel Sample: 96

- Decanter, 96 pts. 

This version shows the floral side of the vintage, with a vibrant mix of iris, violet and rose petal notes leading the way, backed by a core of pure and racy red and black currant preserves. There's a well-integrated singed cedar note running along its flanks and a long beam of iron driving the finish. Textbook. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. 

- Wine Spectator, 96 pts. 

The 2022 Grand-Puy-Lacoste has turned out nicely in bottle, unwinding in the glass with aromas of cassis and plums mingled with notions of rose petal, tobacco leaf and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, bright and velvety, with a layered core of fruit and powdery structuring tannins, it's beautifully balanced.

- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 95 pts.