Château d'Issan 2022

Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

The Wine Independent

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

James Suckling

This is one hell of an Issan with blackberry, blackcurrant, and hazelnut aromas and flavors. Cherries. Cedar. Full and intense with tannins that are long and bright. Goes tight at the end, indicating greatness. 65% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 2% cabernet franc, 2% malbec and 1% petit verdot.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2022 D'Issan is a lovely wine that will delight Médoc purists, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet berries, burning embers, violets and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered, with velvety tannins and a deep core of vibrant fruit, it's a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. The estate is now equipped with a battery of 20-hectoliter tanks, permitting sub-plot by sub-plot harvesting this year.

James Suckling

This is why I chose the Château d'Issan Margaux 2022 as our Wine of the Year for 2025. I just drank a bottle a couple of nights ago before finishing this article and I was elated to enjoy such a glorious young bottle of Bordeaux. The opulent and complex fruit in the wine just kept me coming back with every sip. It’s luxurious, to say the least, with velvety tannins and complex flavors of currants, spices and mushrooms. Marie and I and two other colleagues finished the bottle in 20 minutes at the dinner table as we discussed the virtues of the wine. All we could say when our glasses were empty was, “Where did the bottle go?”

We gave higher ratings to many wines over the year, and some of those with 100 and 99 points are included in the list below. But I wanted everyone who loves great wine to have the chance to buy and taste our Wine of the Year. Great Bordeaux has excellent global distribution and significant production. Our estimated four million followers around the world buy and drink Bordeaux, and with d’Issan’s 2022 production of about 105,000 bottles, it should be relatively easy to find. Moreover, it won’t cost a fortune – it sells for about $70 a bottle.

The availability of d’Issan and other 2022 Bordeaux was a key factor in including so many Bordeaux on the list this year. For the Top 10, I tried to only include wines with a minimum production of 12,000 bottles. It’s difficult to find great wines with such significant production levels, but I did.