Château Tronquoy, 2022
Château Tronquoy, 2022
- 75cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot
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Optimal drinking window: 2030 - 2055
Château Tronquoy sits in Saint-Estèphe, a commune that has always played the long game. Darker, cooler, and more clay-heavy than its Pauillac neighbour to the south, Saint-Estèphe produces Cabernet-dominant reds with proper backbone and a brooding mineral quality that takes a few years to find its voice.
The 2022 vintage, one of the warmest and driest on record in Bordeaux, gave the commune's naturally cool soils a chance to shine — ripeness without the flabbiness that bedevilled hotter sites.
What the critics say:
"The 2022 Tronquoy has a complex bouquet that unfolds in the glass, with blackberry, cedar and tobacco scents, one of the most classical styles in this flight. It builds in power. The palate has exquisite balance, a kind of symmetry that reminds me of Montrose. Perfectly judged acidity, this is so precise on the finish and contains the sapidity to draw you back for more. I already knew this was a strong Saint-Estèphe but here it really shows the opposition what it is capable of. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London."
"The 2022 Château Tronquoy is the finest vintage of this cuvée ever produced, offering fabulous aromatics of cassis, graphite, violets, flowers, chocolate, and earthy nuances. Full-bodied and beautifully rich and textured on the palate, with sweet tannins and a seamless, concentrated mouthfeel, it’s already hard to resist, and as I said from barrel, it shows the ripeness of the vintage while staying pure, balanced, and seamless. It’s going to benefit from just 4-6 years in the cellar and drink well for 25+ years."
The vineyards of Tronquoy sit on the clay-limestone plateau typical of Saint-Estèphe, with some gravel closer to the surface on the better-drained parcels. Clay retains water superbly, which in a drought year like 2022 acts as a natural buffer against stress, keeping vines pushing steadily through the growing season rather than shutting down. The result is wines with genuine freshness and mineral grip even in warm vintages — that iron and graphite quality is the clay talking.
Saint-Estèphe is the northernmost of the four great Médoc communes and arguably the most misunderstood. It has no First Growth, which has historically kept it in Pauillac's shadow, but its wines — built on heavier clay soils — are among the most age-worthy in the Médoc. Firmer tannins, darker fruit, and a characteristic mineral austerity in youth give way, with time, to wines of real complexity and authority. The commune's five classed growths, led by Cos d'Estournel and Montrose, set the benchmark, but the standard across the appellation has risen sharply over the past two decades.
The 2022 growing season in Bordeaux threw everything at the vines: a warm, dry spring that brought flowering forward, followed by scorching summer heat that had many producers genuinely worried about their fruit. By August, some vineyards were showing real stress, with leaf burn and shrivelling grapes becoming common sights across the Left Bank. The saving grace came in September when temperatures dropped and gentle rains arrived just when the vines needed them most, allowing the late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon to finish properly whilst preserving freshness.
What emerged from this rollercoaster was a vintage of surprising quality, though yields were predictably low. The reds show concentrated fruit with ripe tannins that avoid the harsh edge that excessive heat can bring - that September reprieve really mattered. Merlot fared particularly well, ripening before the worst of the summer stress, whilst Cabernet Sauvignon varies more depending on terroir and how well individual estates managed the heat. We're finding the wines drink beautifully now with immediate charm, though the better examples will certainly reward patience over the next decade.
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Château Tronquoy
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