▸ Ready for grilled lamb chops.

▸ Blackcurrant. Black cherry. Vanilla.

▸ One-hectare plot, 40-year vines.

Home-cooked lamb or a cheddar burger picks up the wine’s ripe blackcurrant core and smooth tannins. Fermented cool at 21 °C and rested four months in cement, the 2022 Merlot stays bright despite the hot vintage.

Nicolas Lassagne bottles this Merlot from a single hectare of 40-year vines just beyond Saint-Émilion. He ferments at 21 °C with gentle extraction and lets the wine rest four months in cement, skipping oak entirely. Result: clean blackcurrant and a soft, medium frame that shows the hot 2022 vintage without heaviness.