2022 Vintage Summary: Twelve months ago, at the end of April, there was not a lot of optimistic thoughts to have about what the 2022 vintage was going to look like. A valley-wide frost event had seemed to have decimated massive swaths of young shoots and that there might be 10-15% of a normal harvest overall and none in some places. In the 50+ year history of the Oregon wine industry this was as grim a time across the board as probably has ever existed. Coming on the heels of the devastating wildfires of 2020 that basically ruined any and all Pinot Noir fruit still hanging (another vintage with nothing to bottle and sell seemed to have the possibilities of actually being financially ruinous as opposed to just a massive gut-punch). There was a 2-3 week stretch over the last part of April and beginning of May where it seemed like you could feel the impending doom hanging over the valley like some sort of supernatural storm cloud. By late May we realized that we would be receiving fruit beyond what we were expecting just a few weeks prior. Grapevines have, seemingly, a capacity to go through their life cycle even in the face of some serious adversity. Secondary buds had shown up and were turning into shoots and those shoots had flowers on them. By mid-July it was clear that in some vineyards were going to have fruit sets higher than what we would have anticipated at any point during the year! What was once a time of feeling depressed and finding it hard to have higher spirits turned into a scramble to prepare for a harvest of a size we never would have expected at any point! When the dust had all settled and the fruit was all in, fermented and sent to barrel it turns out we had our second largest harvest ever, surpassed only by the 2021 vintage. On top of it the quality seems to be not only better than hoped, but truly excellent. The Pinots are just starting to turn the corner from being relatively raw wines to beginning their polishing phase where they start to strut the first looks at their final selves. It is exciting to see. Loads of red fruit and velvety textures seem to rule the day in 2022. We will have our darker fruited sites and our lighter sites but, in general, the best characteristics of each wine from each vineyard are what we are experiencing as the front and center natures of the wines. So, a roller-coaster ride for sure; fast moving highs and lows with a little more excitement than we would prefer, but in the end, everything is fine and we had a great time living the experience.
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