2022 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

2022 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Product: 20228003227
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2022 Château Batailley, Pauillac, Bordeaux

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Description

Regular devotees of Ch. Batailley will not be disappointed by the 2022. They may have to be more patient than usual before pulling the first cork, however: this is a dense, broad-shouldered wine with impressive levels of tannin. The palate is compact, but the tell-tale notes of liquorice and blackcurrant are there in muted abundance and with the little savoury twist so typical of the property. 

Given that Batailley 1947 (stylistically comparable to 2022, and the year of their marriage) was served to the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on their silver wedding anniversary, the Castéja family have chosen to commemorate the year of Her Majesty’s passing with a special black and gold label.

75% Cabernet Sauvignon; 22% Merlot; 3% Petit Verdot.

Drink 2030 - 2050

Score: 16.5/20

Berry Bros. & Rudd (April 2023)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous94-96/100

The 2022 Batailley was picked from 8 to 27 September (at the same time as Lynch-Moussas) and is raised in 55% new oak. It comes with a newly-designed label. It has a well-defined bouquet with blackberry and cassis, violet and tobacco. The palate is clean and precise on the entry. With lovely focus and detail, this is a sophisticated Batailley with a surfeit of mineralité and excellent clarity and typicity on the finish. Unequivocally, one of the finest iterations of Batailley that the Castèja family has overseen. This Batailley is like driving a classic old car, and I mean that in the best possible sense.

Drink 2032 - 2060

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (May 2023)

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Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW94-96+/100

The 2022 Batailley is composed of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it comes galloping out with energetic notes of crushed blackcurrants, Morello cherries, and fresh, juicy blackberries, plus hints of tar, licorice, lavender, and garrigue. The medium-bodied palate delivers taut, muscular black fruits with loads of spicy sparks and a firm texture of ripe, grainy tannins, finishing long and mineral-laced. pH 3.7.

Drink 2028 - 2048

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent (May 2023)

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Jane Anson96/100

You can't ignore the construction of the tannins here, but there is a plenty of juice in between and this is a gorgeous Batailley. On brand Pauillac, as it so often is, delivering slate, liquorice, energy, cassis, blackberry, orange peel, cardamom, black pepper, graphite, grip. Classic balance also, you don't feel you are in an extreme vintage here. Two thirds of the production is in the first wine of Batailley in this vintage. 55% new oak. A label in honour of Queen Elizabeth II also...

Drink 2030 - 2047

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (May 2023)

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Jancis Robinson MW17+/20

75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot.

Cask sample. Blackcurrant notes with a graphite edge. Subdued power with length and persistence. Tannins finely honed. Freshness as well. A powerful but refined statement. One of the best yet from this estate.

Drink 2030 - 2047

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (May 2023)

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Wine Advocate91-93/100

An especially strong effort for this estate, the 2022 Batailley exhibits aromas of dark berries, cassis, licorice and sweet soil tones, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and layered palate. It's a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and the balance Petit Verdot.

William Kelley, Wine Advocate (April 2023)

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James Suckling95-96/100

A very tight and typical Batailley with medium to full body, linear and racy tannins, which are pure and focused. Spicy finish. Compacted.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (April 2023)

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Decanter97/100

Vibrant and intense colour in the glass, richly scented, floral and perfumed, open and inviting. Intense and concentrated, the fruit is dark and ripe, but there’s no hint of over-ripeness here, and instead, you get cool blue fruits, chalky tannins and minty freshness with accents of liquorice, coffee, tobacco, cedar spice and clove. 

Tannins are clearly at the fore, giving the structure and the frame, while the juicy acidity gives the energy and life. Still on the serious side, not tense so much as there’s good persistence; it’s lean and streamlined but refined in a spiced and mineral way. 

Gorgeous terroir markers, lovely detail and precision; you can feel they haven’t worked too much or tried too hard. It carries the estate’s signature in the serious structure; it’s a big wine; there’s such power here but so well controlled and delivered. Razor sharp, focused and persistent. A gorgeous 2022, well executed and will be an evident success.

Drink 2025 - 2049

Georgina Hindle, Decanter.com (April 2023)

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Jeb Dunnuck92-94+/100

Cassis, darker currants, tobacco, and some earthy goodness all emerge from the 2022 Château Batailley, a medium to full-bodied Pauillac with wonderful purity, a good spine of acidity, and ripe, integrated tannins. Based on 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot, it's clearly an outstanding wine, if not more.

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (May 2023)

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About this WINE

Château Batailley

Château Batailley

Château Batailley is one of the oldest estates in Bordeaux, dating from the 15th century. A 5ème Cru Classé, it is known for producing wines of consistently high quality and excellent value in a classic Pauillac style.

The vineyard sits on a plateau at the southern end of Pauillac, on the site of a battle between the French and the English during the Hundred Years War – hence the name ‘Batailley’. The estate has been owned by the Borie family since 1932, and is currently in the hands of family-members Denise and Emile Castèja of the famous negociants Borie-Manoux, which also owns Ch. Lynch-Moussas, Ch. Trotte Vieille and Domaine de l’Église. Ch. Batailley, considered to be the jewel in the family crown, is now managed by son Philippe Castèja and grandson Frédéric.

For years, Ch. Batailley has enjoyed a reputation as a reliable, well-priced Pauillac. Over the last 15-20 years, however, there has been a much greater emphasis on the quality of the fruit. The result has been wines of decidedly more finesse – still in the classic Pauillac style, and still one of the best value Cru Classé at any level.

Since 2014, Batailley has produced a second wine, Lions de Batailley, using grapes from some of the younger vines; it’s lighter in style but retains the signature profile of the Grand Vin.

The 57 hectares of vineyards are planted in classic Pauillac proportions: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The deep gravel beds are ideal for the later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon; the clay and limestone subsoil is equally favourable to Merlot. Grapes are harvested by hand, in parcels of roughly one hectare each.

Grapes are fully de-stemmed, then fermented in stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation takes place partly in tank, partly in barrel, and the wine is then aged in 225-litre barriques, 55% new, for 16-18 months before bottling.

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Pauillac

Pauillac

Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.

For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.

Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.

Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.

Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.

Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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