2022 Savennieres Roche Aux Moines Clos de la Bergerie

The 2022 Savennières Clos de la Bergerie is a dry wine made from late-picked grapes and a portion of botrytized fruit, which yielded a rather tiring and hot 15% alcohol. It's a firm, uncompromising style with real phenolic grip and drive. However, the flavors are a little off-putting: farmyard-like and yeasty, like a malted beer, with apple cider vinegar aromas. There's purity and concentration—a result of tiny yields on this excellent terroir—but as seems to be the case year in and year out, there's a series of strange choices at both picking and in the winery. Instead of emphasizing the purity of the terroir, as they claim to seek on their back label, it's lost. The fruit underneath is great. The wine is unsuccessful. In 2022, it’s hard to ignore the issues with the wines of the Famille Joly. In 2021, the wines seemed cleaner; the natural freshness of the vintage provided greater clarity, and the nature of the fruit seemed purer. This was encouraging, as the Jolys farm some of the finest vineyards in Savennières. However, in 2022 farmyard and cider notes, malted yeast characters, acetaldehyde (over-ripe bruised apples and nuts) and even a touch of fizz dominate the flavors of the wines. The high level of alcohol, a common feature of the wines here, is particularly noticeable in 2022. This combination adds up to make a vintage that provides very little pleasure and hides the terroir. For those reasons, I cannot recommend the 2022s. I’ll also be looking to taste the 2021s again.