2022 Château Berliquet

The 2022 Berliquet has a little more horsepower on the nose compared to its stablemate, Château Canon, although it does not possess the same mineralité and delineation. Black cherry, blueberry and light violet scents mix with iodine. The palate is medium-bodied with a sapid black fruit note and quite grippy tannins. This is an assertive Berliquet that deserves four to five years in bottle. It’s very fine…but I think there will be even better with age.

- Neal Martin (01/2025)

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. Very attractive now but better in three to four years. (01/2025)

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. It will evolve nicely over the coming 20-25 years. (02/2025)

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.

- William Kelley (03/2025)