Château Petit Village, Pomerol,

Cassis, mocha, coffee bean, densely packed but supple dark fruits. There is clear acidity and it is needed amid the intensity of the fruit, with everything offset by curls of attractive peony and rose notes. Harvest September 2 to 19 (but the begining was for the second wine). 10.5ha, 3rd year with the Moulin family as owners. Soft extraction, no pumpovers. 30hl/h yield, from a section of the vineyard with a lot of clays that kept freshness in this vintage. Guillaume Fredoux winemaker (the same team now works across both Petit Village and Beauregard). 45% new oak, 5% of 500l oak casks, 3.85ph,

The 2022 Petit-Village, a blend of 68% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Franc and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, is endowed with a ripe, slightly candied nose, lively red berry fruit tinged with blood orange. It responds well to aeration, cohering and gaining focus. The palate is well balanced, with slightly tertiary-infused black fruit, just a touch of piquancy toward the finish. There is a pleasing corpulence to this Pomerol, though it never quite engages full-throttle when some of its neighbors have in this vintage. This is an estate that has more to give, not now but in the future.