Winemaker Notes
Blend: 65% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A richer, darker-fruited wine than its big brother Canon, the 2022 Château Berliquet comes from slightly more clay soils and is always a bigger, broader wine, especially when compared to Canon and its neighbors on the upper plateau. It offers more currant and black cherry fruit as well as scorched earth, chocolate, and truffly aromas and flavors that gain persistence and intensity with time in the glass. These carry to a rich, full-bodied Saint-Emilion that has a beautifully layered mouthfeel, plenty of mid-palate depth, and a great finish. The level of purity and precision here is exceptional. The 2022 is 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc, from a mix of clay and limestone soils on the upper plateau, that spent 16 months in 44% new French oak, with 8% in amphora.
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Decanter
Juicy, supple, delicate and refined with a lovely texture and acidity that grips the mouth and says 'drink me'. Crystalline cool blue fruit, pure and well defined, this is pulsing with life, vibrant and present. Powerful and filling with a generous core, playful and friendly but complex and concentrated too. Confident with bite and appealing chalkiness at the finish. Clean and pure, so easy to enjoy still with structure and balance and a salty stone minerality on the finish. In organic conversion.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
James Suckling
Aromatic and fresh with sandalwood and dark fruit as well as bark and mushrooms. Medium-bodied with creamy tannins and a savory finish. Juicy is the word.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Berliquet offers up lovely aromas of raspberries, cherries, violets and pencil shaving, followed by a medium to full-bodied, lively and seamless palate that's dense and muscular, with rich tannin and a mineral finish. As readers will remember, this is an estate on the rise, with changes including opting to retain higher canopies, which means that the fruiting zone of rows planted along the slope are now shaded, preserving freshness. Rating:-94+
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.