“Opulent, bright and rich – a very amazing vintage.”
LOUIS MITJAVILE, APRIL 2023
Following our tastings with François and Louis last month in Bordeaux, we are delighted to open the 2022 season of C&B ‘family’ releases with these wonderful wines.
These three estates, one in prime Saint-Émilion, the others on the banks of the Dordogne, are united by a common approach, a quest for ultimate fruit expression. The consequent ‘degraded’ fruit profile and sensual, melded structures, have become a Mitjavile hallmark.
Summer 2022’s extremes of heat have had an impact on the yields here, in particular at Tertre Roteboeuf, where the crop was 40% smaller than in 2021. The cool nights and natural harmony of the Mitjavile vineyards have nonetheless safeguarded a fabulous freshness in all three wines.
Merlot has thrived in 2022, making for wines of richness, mineral definition and ageing potential. L’Aurage continues to forge its own bold, spicy, strident identity. Roc de Cambes is soaringly perfumed and exotic, and is joined for the first time in our offer this year by sibling wine Domaine de Cambes. Tertre Roteboeuf, the elder statesman with a cheeky twinkle in its eye, is simply majestic, bearing more than a passing resemblance for me to the wonderful 2009 vintage.
GUY SEDDON Head of Fine Wine Buying, May 2023The three Mitjavile properties have excelled in 2022, which will be remembered as a season like no other.
FRANÇOIS MITJAVILE
April 2023
…relating how the yield at Tertre Roteboeuf in 2022 was 40% lower than in 2021
Let’s talk about 2022! The fermentations are over, and this new vintage is in barrels. We can therefore say a few words.
The summer was very hot, dry, sunny; however, the vines did not suffer too much, and the crop presented us with magnificent fruit.
At the heart of this deep maturity… freshness, digestibility!
This should not surprise us because this paradox is typical of “hot” vintages over the past century. Is it due to the Atlantic influence, to the Gulf Stream? I don’t know but let’s not confuse, according to the current fashion, freshness and greenness!
It is a wine bursting with flavour (alas the yield is low).
What surprises me is the depth, and the meatiness.
“It has flesh” (« Il a du gras ») – supreme statement of tasters, in the past…
So, quite a stunning wine.
Click here to watch Adam Brett-Smith speak to François Mitjavile at Tertre Roteboeuf about the 2022 vintage.
“There is not a reasonable quantity.”
May 2023
An extraordinary vintage. A nice continentaltype spring, then a very dry and hot summer, even scorching!
Despite these extreme conditions, the vines of L’Aurage, planted on a limestone soil and deep clay, did not suffer.
Harvest took place from 27th to 30th September, with good yields.
L’Aurage 2022 has to be tasted to be believed! It is rich, full and opulent. It’s brilliant.
“The most beautiful wine produced since the first vintage at L’Aurage.”
Best viewed from the bottom of François Mitjavile’s garden, from where Tertre Roteboeuf stretches out below you, a sweeping six-hectare amphitheatre on claylimestone soils. The limestone, visible in the underground cellars’ walls, is one of the keys to Tertre Roteboeuf.
François’ trademark late picking finds a counterbalance in the naturally cool soil. This safeguards the wines’ characteristic freshness alongside the so-called ‘degraded’ fruit profile which François seeks. The blend reflects the vineyard plantings of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The average vine age is over 40 years.
2022 TASTING NOTE:
80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. Shiny dark berries, cedar, coffee beans and violet aromas, with a sauvage meatiness. The palate opens with salty freshness, heralding a mid-palate of building power and flavour concentration, on which raspberry and wild strawberry fruit is framed by firm tannins. Violets and bitter chocolate on the fresh, harmonious finish. François sees this in a bracket with his ‘85, ‘89, ‘97 and ’09 vintages.
Corney & Barrow Score 18 - 18.5
Recommended drinking from 2029 - 2045
£990/ case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£1,010/ case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
The Côtes de Bourg appellation is some 45 minutes north-west of Saint-Émilion, on the banks of the Dordogne, where it meets the Garonne and combines into the Gironde estuary. As Antonio Galloni has written, “Quite frankly, Roc de Cambes takes the Côtes de Bourg to a whole new level.”
The property is over twice the size of Tertre Roteboeuf, comprising 14 hectares, with a similar average vine age (40+ years). Roc de Cambes lies on the ‘Les Croutes’ slope, where the heat of the sun is tempered by the river. Cool clay-limestone soils take time to warm up in the spring so that late ripening is the norm. The plantings are 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.
2022 TASTING NOTE:
80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. A pretty nose of violets and roses, with bitter cherry, blackcurrant and liquorice aromas. The palate is fresh and sveltly red- and blue-fruited, guided by rounded, fruit-coated tannins. That wonderful ‘degraded’ Mitjavile fruit profile – melded and supple – leads into a long, elegant finish. One of the gems of the right bank.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5 - 18
Recommended drinking from 2027 - 2038+
£330/ case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£340/ case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
£250/ case of 1 double magnum, in bond UK
We are delighted to be able to offer Domaine de Cambes, the estate’s ‘other’ (not second!) wine made from vines at the bottom of the slope, for the first time this year.
2022 TASTING NOTE:
Compared to Roc de Cambes’ clay-limestone soils, Domaine de Cambes sits on lower-lying, deep, cool clay soils, making for a fleshier style of wine. Medium bodied, with tender raspberry and blackberry fruit, cedar, mocha, and a line of salty minerality, this earlier-drinking sibling will be approachable in a couple of years.
Corney & Barrow Score 17+
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2032+
£230/ case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£240/ case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
Castillon-la-Bataille sits on the banks of the Dordogne river, around 12km to the south-east of Saint-Émilion. The ‘battle’ in the town’s name commemorates a resounding victory against the English in 1453, which brought to an end the Hundred Years War.
Louis ‘Loulou’ Mitjavile started making wine at Tertre Roteboeuf and Roc de Cambes. He and his wife Caroline purchased the property in 2006. The vines here run right up to the Saint-Émilion boundary. Merlot accounts for almost the entirety of the 15 hectares, with diminishing amounts of Cabernet Franc.
The particularly small berries of the 2022 vintage were picked earlier than usual, on 26th and 27th September.
L’Aurage 2022 is 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc, mirroring the vineyard plantings. Bright raspberry aromas with cedary spices. The palate’s pure, crunchy redcurrant and rich cranberry fruit is framed by structured oak tannins, making for a full-bodied, sweetly red-fruited wine with a gentle vanilla pod creaminess.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2032
£325/ case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£345/ case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
£140/ case of 1 double magnum in bond UK
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