Once again, the UGC Bordeaux (Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB)), annual release tour visited Chicago this week unveiling/showcasing their 2022 vintage release wines. This was the same event we attended and featured last year in these pages in this post - UGCB 2021 Vintage Release Tour 2024 Comes to Chicago, excerpted below..
The Union is the association of 132 members of the top premier wine producer estates from the most prestigious Bordeaux appellations. In cooperation with distributors, brokers and merchants they host over 80 events in fifteen countries visiting 65 cities to present their wines to some 50,000 or so professionals and wine lovers each year around the world.
Their events go beyond France, taking them throughout Europe (Germany, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Russia), to this tour of North America (US and Canada) , and to Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore).
This year's UGCB US TOUR - 2025 started in Miami at The Hangar, then to the fabulous Cipriani on 42nd Street in New York, prior to coming to The Drake Hotel in Chicago, then heading on to San Francisco City View @ Metreon, and finishing at Vibiana in Los Angeles. Previous years have also included stops in Toronto and/or Montréal.
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| 'Pour Boys' Tom C, me, Ernie and Lyle with UGCB Ambassadors Chloe Morvan and Marie Damouseau, from 2020. |
As in years past, except the Covid disrupted alternate site two years ago, at Chicago Union Station Grand Hall, which actually was delayed to June, the gala event was held in the Drake Hotel in the magnificent grand Gold Coast Ballroom (shown below).
The Pour Boys serve as volunteers, working with the host organizers Mike Wangbickler, Kat Stark and the Balzac Communications team, and the UGCB Bordeaux events team.
According to the routine, we help prepare the room and the wines, checking in trade registrants, and standing in for producers who faced travel or other disruptions, presenting and pouring their wines.
According to the routine, we help prepare the room and the wines, checking in trade registrants, and standing in for producers who faced travel or other disruptions, presenting and pouring their wines.
We start early in the day unpacking and preparing the wines, carefully setting up each wine station for the arrival of the producers' and their representatives for presenting and pouring the wine during the afternoon session.
Often over the years, some producers or their representatives were delayed in travel or had other disruptions and we were called in to service to pour their wines, hence, we earned our moniker, the 'Pour Boys'. This was our sixteenth year working this gala annual event.
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| Pour Boys Rick and Lyle |
As usual, close to a hundred producers were represented at the event that was attended by over five hundred members of the trade, merchants, hospitality and media.
As is their custom in the third week of January, this annual roadshow is a marathon trek across North America by the producers and their representatives, offering wine professionals and oenophiles the chance to meet the Bordeaux principles, winemakers, ambassadors and commercial directors.
As always, we appreciate the investment in time and effort expended by the producers and their representatives coming to visit Chicago. It provides a wonderful opportunity to meet them firsthand and hearing their perspectives on their brand, approach to crafting their vintage release, their history, businesses, and their past vintages and of course, the current release.
As collectors and holders of not-insignificant collections of Bordeaux wines dating back four decades, we Pour Boys hold as many as several dozen or more vintages of some of these labels. Meeting the owners, family members, producer / winemaker / representatives of these great Chateaux is a great privilege and offers a collector the chance to learn more about their investment and wines.
As such, I tend to focus on and taste those wines that I know well and hold verticals (multiple vintages of the same label), of which my wine buddies and I have holdings.
Despite the extreme inclement weather this day in Chicago, this years event was well attended to a full house.As is their custom in the third week of January, this annual roadshow is a marathon trek across North America by the producers and their representatives, offering wine professionals and oenophiles the chance to meet the Bordeaux principles, winemakers, ambassadors and commercial directors.
As always, we appreciate the investment in time and effort expended by the producers and their representatives coming to visit Chicago. It provides a wonderful opportunity to meet them firsthand and hearing their perspectives on their brand, approach to crafting their vintage release, their history, businesses, and their past vintages and of course, the current release.
As collectors and holders of not-insignificant collections of Bordeaux wines dating back four decades, we Pour Boys hold as many as several dozen or more vintages of some of these labels. Meeting the owners, family members, producer / winemaker / representatives of these great Chateaux is a great privilege and offers a collector the chance to learn more about their investment and wines.
As such, I tend to focus on and taste those wines that I know well and hold verticals (multiple vintages of the same label), of which my wine buddies and I have holdings.
After working to set up the event, register attendees and fill in for late arriving producers' due to travel delays, we’re able to partake of the release tasting.
The 2022 vintage is a blockbuster, possibly the best in a decade, on par with the recent stellar 2009 and likely to be heralded with legendary vintages such as 1982 and others.
The 2022 vintage is a blockbuster, possibly the best in a decade, on par with the recent stellar 2009 and likely to be heralded with legendary vintages such as 1982 and others.
The 2022 year was one of the hottest and driest growing seasons in the history of the region. The early heat in the spring set up the vines for the brutally hot and dry summer growing season, which also included some critical rains in June and a few storms in August. Producers learned from the continuous hot and dry vintages of 2018, 2019 and 2020 how to moderate or cope with the intense sun, such as leaving fuller canopies of leaves to shade grapes.
Despite the rather extreme weather conditions, the vintage produced dark dense fruit resulting in opulent and structured wines, beautifully balanced, smooth, supple, polished and elegant, bursting with fresh ripe fruit flavors that were approachable, even when young, upon release.
It was reported that all the Bordeaux varietal grapes — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, faired well. Berries were small, skins were healthy and the juice was concentrated. While acidities are on the lower side, the wines show remarkable freshness and purity, aromatics are right and vibrant and textures are smooth and polished.
As is the case as I have written before, in such great vintages, ‘all boats rise with the tide”, so that there should be many stunning wines available, even at the more modest price points as the gap between grand vin and second wines may be narrower in 2022
As usual, we focused on the producers that we own and collect, with particular interest in those that we visited during our last trip to Bordeaux, as well as those we are targeting for our next or futures visits to the region.
Highlights of wines that stood out were the usual suspects from my perennial favorites - Pichon Baron, Lynch Bages, then Pichon Lalande, in Paulliac, in order of more structured and concentrated to less so.
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| Pauline Gibert Pichon Baron |
In St Julien, Gruaud Larose, then Leoville Barton followed by Leoville Poyferre, and finally Beychevelle, which showed particularly well with extraordinary bouquet and polished ripe fruit.
As is customary, the Barton wines were represented by Managing Director Lilian Barton Sartorius who represents the 9th generation of the Barton family. These days the property is managed by Lilian assisted by her husband, Michel Sartorius, and their grown children, Damien and Melanie, of the 10th generation, who are taking on increasing responsibility in the business. Here she is shown with Sara Lecompte-Cuvelier of Leoville Poyferre.
The Branaire Ducru was the finest I’ve ever experienced in memory, perhaps reflecting, in addition to the vintage, this being the first vintage produced in the completely renovated production facilities, with double the number of vats, with which to be more discriminating and granularly focused in the production and ultimate blending.
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| Francois-Xavier-Maroteaux Owner Château Branaire-Ducru |
Pomerol showed well with Clinet being a standout. I regret I didn’t get to taste two favorites, Chateaux Canon and Canon-Le-Gaffeliere, as they were gone by the time I got to their table, late in the day.
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Domaine Chevalier showed well from Pessac-Leognan, presenting a new label/branding for the historic anniversary vintage.
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| Hugo Bernard - Domaine Chevalier |
