2022 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

2022 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Product: 20228013701
Place a bid
Prices start from £420.00 per case Buying options
2022 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

Buying options

Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
Case format
Availability
Price per case
3 x 75cl bottle
Berry Bros. & Rudd BB&R 33 cases £420.00
En Primeur Limited availability
En Primeur Limited availability
You can place a bid for this wine on BBX
Place a bid

Description

Cabernet Franc 40%; Cabernet Sauvignon 34%; Merlot 26%.

This astonishing wine is probably Guillaume Pouthier’s best ever. It stands apart stylistically in Bordeaux, not just because of the radical use of whole bunches (a record 70% this year). The estate’s unique terroir boasts a little Left Bank limestone among its gravels and clay, too, and Cabernet Franc is important. Guillaume is an instinctive innovator. He has worked ceaselessly to understand the subtleties of each vineyard plot and react accordingly – but only if necessary. He extended the post-fermentation maceration to six weeks, held at 26°C.

The alcohol fell to 13.5%, and the pH arrived at 3.64, absorbed by the stems from the whole bunches; this was the lowest pH for any red wine we tasted. Ageing is in a mix of new barrels, 18-hectolitre casks and amphorae. The wine shows a savoury bitterness, a floral rose perfume, a note of iodine and oyster, pure cassis and fresh green garden herb, all held in an embroidery of sinewy, tense but resolved tannins. It’s a brilliant work of art.

Score: 19.5/20

Berry Bros. & Rudd

wine at a glance

Delivery and quality guarantee

Critics reviews

Jane Anson96/100

This is a truly delicious Pessac Léognan that shows just how much Carmes Haut-Brion sets itself apart, showing grip and stretching out through the palate. Don't expect the same character as you will find elsewhere in this vintage. 

Fragrant aromatics, roses, violets, crushed rocks, fennel, and aniseed, with texture and tannic heft. Fresh dark fruits, edges of bitter Bendick mints, smoked caramel, slate. 

70% whole bunch, no irrigation, cover crops instead on the clay-limestone soils (when picked, the grapes were at 14.4%, came down to 13.5% after vinification using stems and specific yeast). 40hl/h yields, 70% new oak, 3.6ph.

Drink 2030 - 2050

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (May 2023)

Read more
Neal Martin, Vinous96-98/100

The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion was picked 5-20 September with 70% whole bunches (three vats contained 100% whole cluster that was co-fermented), matured in 70% new oak, 20% in 18hL casks and 10% in amphora. It underwent a long, six-week infusion in the vat at a maximum of 26° Celsius, just over a week longer than usual. 

It is extremely precise on the nose with blackberry, briary, crushed stone and hints of curry leaf. The palate is just beautiful. Sculpted tannins, fine-boned, lend this Les Carmes unerring symmetry and focus. This is loaded with mineral-laden dark berry fruit and feels seamless toward the finish. 

I am not inclined toward hyperbole. Nevertheless, this is the best Les Carmes that Guillaume Pouthier has overseen.

Drink 2030 - 2070

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (May 2023)

Read more
Antonio Galloni, Vinous98-100/100

Technical Director Guillaume Pouthier follows his majestic 2020 with another riveting wine. The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is, quite simply, unforgettable. A wine of tremendous energy, the 2022 saturates the palate with inky red/blue fruits, lavender, sage and mint, showing remarkable density that builds into a lasting finish enshrouded by seamless tannins. 

The 2022 is a co-ferment of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot done with 70% stems that saw six full weeks on the skins. Élevage is 70% new oak, 20% 18HL cask and 10% amphora. It is an incredibly modern wine that marries Bordeaux classicism with hints of Northern Rhône and Piedmont inflexions. 

All the elements are so well-balanced that nothing sticks out. Instead, the wine's profound beauty leaves a lasting impression.

Drink 2030 - 2062

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (May 2023)

Read more
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW97-99/100

The 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 26% Merlot, 90% ageing in oak (70% new barriques, 20% 18hl casks) and 10% in amphoras. Deep garnet-purple in colour, it pops out of the glass with lifted notes of redcurrant jelly, wild blueberries, blackcurrant pastilles, and lavender, leading to cerebral wafts of the cast-iron pan, dark chocolate and dusty soil with a hint of liquorice.

The red and black berry flavours do pirouettes on the medium-bodied palate, featuring incredibly fine-grained tannins and fantastic tension that shimmer the very long mineral-laced finish. As usual, the alcohol is 13.5% (the stem inclusion absorbs some alcohol during fermentation), and the pH is 3.64. This vibrant, showy, immediately impactful wine flies in the face of traditional Bordeaux, carrying it off with bags of grace and style. 

A slight carbonic character from the whole bunch juxtaposed with a rock-solid structure thanks to the ripe stem tannins creates a unique signature. I personally love it, but if you're a Bordeaux purest, this might not be your cup of tea.

Drink 2030 - 2065

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

Read more
Wine Advocate99-100/100

The remarkable 2022 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a strong candidate for the title of wine of the vintage. It's also one of the most singular, characterful wines being produced in the region today. 

Unfurling in the glass with complex aromas of blackberries and cherries mingled with notions of exotic spices, orange zest, pencil lead, rose petals and vine smoke, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a velvety attack that segues into a layered, seamless and multidimensional mid-palate framed by rich, powdery tannins. 

Pure, perfumed and penetrating, this blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot is a brilliant success that caps a decade of relentless work by Guillaume Pouthier, and his team that has seen Les Carmes Haut-Brion emerge as one of Bordeaux's leading estates. 

It checks in at a mere 13.5% alcohol, with a very healthy pH of 3.64.

Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate (April 2023)

Read more
Jancis Robinson MW17++/20

Deep crimson colour. Slightly reserved aromatically but has floral notes (lily, iris) as it opens. Dense with a beautifully suave texture, the tannins are powerful but refined. Luscious but fresh and long on the finish, the oak (70% new barrels) is completely absorbed. Both seductive and restrained. Marked freshness for the year. Will need to check the evolution.

Drink 2028 - 2047

James Lawther MW, JancisRobinson.com (April 2023)

Read more
James Suckling97-98/100

This is so umami with sea urchin character that gives you sea salt and dried seaweed aromas and flavours. The integrity and richness are so impressive with an exotic character, yet it is so classic and fine in structure. 

13.5% alcohol. 70% whole cluster fermentation. 40% cabernet franc, 35% cabernet sauvignon and 25% merlot. 

A new model for Bordeaux?

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (April 2023)

Read more
Jeb Dunnuck98-100/100

I think one of the legendary wines in the vintage will be the 2022 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, which comes from a tiny vineyard not far from Haut-Brion and is based on 40% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Merlot, vinified with 70% whole clusters, and aged 70% in new barrels, 20% in foudre, and 10% in amphora. 

You wouldn't know it by tasting it despite mostly being destemmed. It has a classic bouquet of ripe blackberries, cassis, leafy herbs, graphite, and violets, while in contrast, the C Des Carmes Haut-Brion, which is vinified with just 30% stems, is marked more by its stems. Full-bodied, concentrated, beautifully balanced, and with a rare mix of purity, freshness, and power, it will rival the 2018 as one of the finest vintages ever produced from this address. 

It's worth noting that this estate has a unique terroir in Pessac that includes some limestone in the soils, and this worked particularly well in 2022. 

Don't miss this wine.

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (May 2023)

Read more

About this WINE

Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Château les Carmes Haut-Brion is a 10.3-hectare wine estate in Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. The property was established over 400 years ago. It takes its name from the Carmelites, the order of monks that tended it for almost 200 years. Once a little-known neighbour of the world-famous Châteaux Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, things have changed rapidly here in recent years and it is today one of Bordeaux’s most exciting names. In 2010, the estate was acquired by Patrice Pichet, a French property developer. He quickly enlisted the dynamic Guillaume Pouthier as winemaker and director, and this has been a truly hot property ever since.

The wine here is stylistically unique within Bordeaux. This is in part due to the vineyard: the estate sits just outside the city of Bordeaux, with some limestone soils to complement the more typical gravel and clay. There is a high proportion of old-vine Cabernet Franc, rarely seen to any great extent on the Left Bank. The team has worked very hard to understand the specificities of each plot and sub-plot, enabling them to react to specific needs – but only where necessary.

Guillaume Pouthier is also a serial innovator. He is a proponent of whole-bunch fermentation, which is virtually unheard of in Bordeaux. Extraction, an important winemaking process, is handled differently here too: Guillaume uses a very gentle method of infusion rather than the more typical pumping-over or punching-down. The wines are matured in a combination of new French oak barrels, large oak casks and amphorae.

Find out more
Pessac-Léognan

Pessac-Léognan

In 1986 a new communal district was created within Graves, in Bordeaux, based on the districts of Pessac and Léognan, the first of which lies within the suburbs of the city. Essentially this came about through pressure from Pessac-Léognan vignerons, who wished to disassociate themselves from growers with predominately sandy soils further south in Graves.

Pessac-Léognan has the best soils of the region, very similar to those of the Médoc, although the depth of gravel is more variable, and contains all the classed growths of the region. Some of its great names, including Ch. Haut-Brion, even sit serenely and resolutely in Bordeaux's southern urban sprawl.

The climate is milder than to the north of the city and the harvest can occur up to two weeks earlier. This gives the best wines a heady, rich and almost savoury character, laced with notes of tobacco, spice and leather. Further south, the soil is sandier with more clay, and the wines are lighter, fruity and suitable for earlier drinking.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Haut-Brion, Ch. la Mission Haut-Brion, Ch. Pape Clément, Ch Haut-Bailly, Domaine de Chevalier, Ch. Larrivet-Haut-Brion, Ch. Carmes Haut-Brion, Ch. La Garde, Villa Bel-Air.

Find out more
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.

Find out more

When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.