2022 Le Tertre Roteboeuf, Grand Cru St-Emilion

The texture is the first thing that strikes you here, with pummice stone salinity and an unfussy, luxurious uncurling of flavours that makes you want to pull up a chair and take your time. Plenty of tar, cloves, liqourice and grilled cedar, alongside blackberry and raspberry fruit laced with pomegranate and orange peel bitterness, not avoiding but leaning into the vintage conditions. Confident and full of limestone character, just a beautiful wine from the Mitjavile family in a year full of paradox. Harvest October 1-2. 100% new oak, medium plus toasting, which is where this tar grilling comes from. No crushing of the grapes but full destemming, no cold soaks, unfiltered until just before bottling. 100% of the vineyard always in Tertre Roteboeuf.

Coming from an incredible hillside terroir on the eastern side of Saint-Emilion, the 2022 Château Tertre Roteboeuf reveals a dense purple hue to go with a kaleidoscopic array of cassis, blueberries, cherries, acacia flowers, violets, and orange blossom. Always exotic, singular, and overflowing with character, the 2022 looks to be no exception and is full-bodied, with a layered, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish.

Both the suavest and the most exotic cuvée in the Mitjaville portfolio, the 2022 Le Tertre Roteboeuf is a full-bodied, supple and fleshy wine evocative of blackberries, espresso roast, rose petals, spices and smoked meats. Concentrated, refined and seamless, it concludes with a long, aromatic finish. Readers might think of it as a cousin of the 2009 vintage, with its sweetness of fruit but rather ethereal, harmonious profile, which stands in contrast with more overtly powerful years, such as 2020 or 2010.

The 2022 Tertre Rôteboeuf is surprisingly understated in this vintage, which is quite different from most years. In this warm, punishing dry vintage I expect to find a more opulent Tertre, but the wine instead remains light on its feet, with surprising minerality and tons of energy to play dark red (rather than black) fruit. The 2022 is pretty clenched today, but élevage should help soften some of the angularity in the contours. Tertre Rôteboeuf is once again one of the most distinctive wines in Saint-Émilion. There’s a feeling of raw, unbridled power that is impossible to miss. Yields were 35 hectoliters per hectare instead of the more typical 40-45 or so. As usual, there is no green harvest and the entire crop is bottled as the Grand Vin.