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then, there has not been a disappointing red Burgundy harvest from the quality point of view. And the Domaine’s wines, in their very different ways (and yields apart), have seen a series of quite exceptional years—beneficiaries, for the moment anyway, of climate change. To take just the three vintages prior to 2022, here follow a few adjectives from my in-bottle reviews describing their style, their quality. 2021 (a pitiable yield—half a crop):


Paucity, moderation, beauty. What they lack in power and opulence, they make up for with finesse, delicacy, subtlety, and a deliciously lip-smacking vitality. 2020 (a healthy average yield): Another astonishing year of outstanding quality—as wondrous as the very grand 2019s, in an utterly different way. Power was not a word that came readily to mind … nor sap, density, mass, matter. These are teasing, exquisite, ethereal wines. 2019 (a paltry yield): Poise, polish, density—a very grand vintage. Characterized by richness, depth, density … sap, mass, matter. The most extraordinary vintage I can recall tasting over the past 20 years.


While each is a year of exceptional


quality, there is a very clear, contrasting stylistic pairing within this most recent quartet of bottled years. The inner two, 2020 and 2021, resemble each other in finesse, delicacy, and an almost ethereal fingerprint; the flanking two, 2019 and (as we see below) 2022, are marked instead by mass, density, substance, structure—and abundance. 2022 (the most abundant yield ever?): A vintage of a grandeur to more than match 2019. What marks it out for the Domaine, though, is the unprecedented conjunction of extraordinary quality with extraordinary quantity. It is a year that—in terms of style, quality, and quantity—is simply swimming in superlatives, where it is difficult to overstate the quality of the wines and just as impossible to avoid extravagant language, such is the character of the year. They have the luxuriance, the lavishness, the exceptional core sweetness, and the enriching tannin grain of exceptional refinement that all derive from copiously sun-nourished grapes; a clear solar expression; aerial, skyward ripeness. But they also voice the


soil’s cold cradling of the vines’ roots; cooler, earthbound impressions suggestive of limestone, clay, minerals, spice. And in this sunniest of years, they have a remarkable freshness of delivery, too. The wines seem to me to be of a majestic, regal bearing that singles them out even in the context of the other recent great solar vintages. They are wines of a most complex orchestration, with all the density, substance, and structure of 2019 (as the most obvious immediate comparison) but expressed in an even more virtuoso configuration, with magnificent complexity and extraordinary persistence. For the few lucky enough to have the


opportunity, what a pair 2019 and 2022 will be, to delight in next to each other.


The wines


I mentioned above that this is a year simply swimming in superlatives, and with descriptions, almost inevitably, to match. Words will fail, of course. These are wines to defy anything more than a fundamentally impressionistic description. Notes such as these reveal our inability to describe with mere words


56 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025


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