Powerful aromatics of cider apple, pie crust and spiced chocolate introduce a wine equally juicy and earthy with intense Bing cherry, forest floor and bittersweet chocolate drawn out by robust, dusty tannins on the lengthy finish.
“A barrel selection, the 2022 Pinot Noir Reserve is pure and expressive. It has layered scents of red cherry and raspberry preserves, rosewater, wild fennel and iron, revealing further detail as it transforms with air in the glass. The medium-bodied palate is powerful and concentrated with fragrant fruit, herb and spice layers. It’s structured by finely grained tannins and fireworks of fresh acidity that brighten its floral perfume, and it has a very long, layered finish.”
– Robert Parker Wine Advocate (July 2024)
In VINTAGE 2022 Mother Nature kept us on our toes with unusual weather at each end of the growing season. A wet, cold spring led into a long, temperate summer followed by a very sunny fall that brought us much-needed ripening.
What a surprise to have snowfall on April 11th, our region’s latest significant snow since 1942! Most of our vines had not yet leafed out and their tight woolly buds were well-protected. However, frost damage did mean a smaller crop at our Clay Court Vineyard. Other vineyard sites set a healthy crop, which we thinned heavily to increase intensity and encourage ripening. August and September were unseasonably warm, but the nights remained cool, helping us retain varietal character. Worries of late-season botrytis (rot) meant extra passes of hand-work in the vineyard pulling leaves to improve sunlight penetration and airflow. Thankfully, October welcomed a long string of sunny days and just exactly the hang-time and ripening we needed to bring grape sugar (brix) to ideal levels.
Harvest began in late September, with most fruit harvested during two very intense mid-October weeks. Many of our blocks achieved peak ripeness at the same time, so we are very thankful for our incredible crew for all of the early morning picking sessions in the vineyard and long days in the cellar. Expect complex, fruit-forward wines from this vintage.
VINEYARD: Our winemaking team considers barrels from all of our estate plantings to make the Reserve our very best Pinot Noir. In 2022, the final blend included four barrels from La Bohème Vineyard, three from Roosevelt Vineyard and one from our Mount Richmond East Vineyard.
WINEMAKING: We only make a Reserve in exceptional years, selecting less than 1% of our Pinot Noir to make the best wine we can imagine, balancing diverse components from our best vineyard blocks. Our Reserve is both big and structured, designed to improve with cellaring for 20+ years.
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