The Wine Doctor – Bordeaux 2022

Château Coutet 2022: 94-96/100

This is 75% Semillon, 23% Sauvignon Blanc and 2% Muscadelle, and the residual sugar is a heady 158 g/l. This is immediately more serious on the nose, with crushed blood orange, minerals, white pepper and white peach. While the nose is vivacious, the palate is fresh and pure, with a finely focused intensity, all orange cream, powdered minerals, white chocolate and an underpinning of light phenolic grip and fine acidity. Sweet and delicately minty in the finish, this is a very finessed example of Coutet, one which hides its prodigious level of residual sugar, and deeply buried botrytis, very well. It has great length too, with a lingering powdery grip. The alcohol is 13.9%. Tasted twice.

Chris Kissack