Some FYI;
Can confirm that Amador county was hit quite hard by spring frost and most Shenandoah Valley was at apprx. 40% yield of normal.
5 Likes
Considering they do make wine outside of CA, it might make sense to update the thread title to include that bit of information.
1 Like
2 Likes
In true Berserker style, please be sure not to read the report before commenting.
Any updates on the 2022 vintage? Already have gotten a few offers
1 Like
I dont think I’ll be buying anything that was picked after that brutal heatwave, but I’ll guess I’ll wait and see if tasting notes are better than expected.
2 Likes
Exactly. I would be very cautious— I would highlight two major concerns. The extreme heat causes a significant loss of anthocyanins and other compounds. Without these, tannins are harsher and reds will not develop richness and good body that we would expect in higher-tiered red wines. (McLeod, below, calls these “donut” wines.) From listening to the McLeod interview, it appears that many/most of the producers in premium AVAs such as Napa, etc, don’t test for color compounds and are not in the mindset, or don’t have the tools/training (and/or are morally opposed) to adding grape concentrate (e…g mega-purple) as an adjustment. There are alternatives such as saignée, but this has its drawbacks as well. Another issue is that high IBMP levels can also be a problem (IBMP is the green bell pepper-related pyrazine). IBMP levels are reduced during the normal ripening process through an enzymatic process, but this can be disrupted due to heat or hydric stress.
3 Likes
That’s interesting and unexpected for me. I actually like green notes in my Cabs, but I’m still worried the wines will just be too huge and over the top.
1 Like
Right— it’s not the common narrative, but I would worry more about hollowed out wines.
1 Like
Roy Piper had a pretty good video about the 2022 harvest - if I remember correctly he divided it into 3 stages around that heat wave when people could have harvested and he thought that some folks probably got themselves into trouble last year.
With the link: Vintage 2022 Summary.mp4 on Vimeo
4 Likes
Anyone who failed to pick before the Labor Day heat wave is, according to wise man Ketan Moody, “fucked”. We’ll see if this technical analysis holds up when the finished wines hit the market. (Ketan picked before the heat wave hit)
3 Likes
Yep he told me the same thing. Guess we will see!
3 Likes
Are y’all mostly talking about Napa cabs, or is a similar issue present in white wines, reds from Sonoma and South Coast, SCM, Paso, AV, etc.
Thanks.
1 Like
I’m talking about Napa reds primarily, but I’d be cocnerned about a lot of red wine in a lot of CA regions. Once again, I havent tasted any of the wines, so my concern could be unwarranted, but having lived through that hellish heat wave, I can’t help but wonder how that would affect the grapes.
I’m not sure, but I think the weather was otherwise pretty pleasant prior to that heat wave (and maybe a much smaller one in June). I’m not concerned about the whites. Not an expert at all on vintage conditions but this is where my head is at currently.
3 Likes
I’ve not had time to post on this but saw it a week+ ago and found time this morning.
Here are my (long) thoughts now that we are almost one year in barrel…
-
Taking out fire vintages, 2022 was the most challenging vintage from a viticultural standpoint in my 18 vintages here. That is my view of the vintage, not a universal one.
-
I bulked-out (or did not pick) 30% of my contracted crop. I “declassified” another 25% of the juice out of Roy Piper to a second-wine. Thus, 55% of my crop/juice will not make my primary Cab. That’s the highest ratio of declassification I’ve ever had in a non-fire year (2011 was 35%.) Luckily I had increased production by 50% so I am not far off my usual production in 2022. Just plain luck.
-
The 45% that will make the wine (one lot is a Cab and one is a Franc) are possibly the greatest two lots of wine I’ve ever made.
-
Because we had 10 consecutive days around Labor Day weekend between 100-106F, including four days 110-117F, absolutely no grower in the valley knew what to do. It was a 100% guessing game about how much to water and how often. Some did well and some struck out. No blame should be given as it was a brave new world for everyone. For Myself, Moulds came in as if nothing had happened at all. Franc lost 1/3 to raisins and the other 2/3 was glorious. Bonny’s vines gave up and stopped ripening for the most part.
-
The idea that the solution was picking before the heat is incorrect in my view. The heat began on August 26th. Veraison had completed just 4 weeks prior. If anyone can find historical data showing the last great vintage in Napa that was picked by the end of August, I’ll buy you lunch in Napa the next time you are out. Even the older vintages of lower alcohol from the 80s were picked in mid-to-late Sept and sometimes October. Grapes need time as much or more than they need sugar. A few people held through one-half the heat and then got off and that did seem to work.
-
All this being said, perhaps 25% of all fruit on the vines in Napa dimpled or raisined in that heat week. Some grapes, and sometimes entire vineyards, were “mercy picked” off at 30-40 brix (18-24% potential alcohol.) That’s a lot of ripeness! Via dehydration.
-
Many of the grapes and vineyards that made it through this heat wave “shut down” even without raisins. I tell people often this fact that some winemakers refuse to believe… “Vines don’t know, or care, that we want to make wine from them.” This is not some mystical romance. Their job is to procreate, first by growing in size and only after, by fruit. Vines raisining their fruit is “natural.” It will happily destroy it all in a week if needed to protect the vine and canopy, which is why we water most of the time over 100F. In this case in 2022, many vines said “F-this, we are out of here!” If that happened, there was little to gain by waiting much longer, although we tried most of the time.
-
The final shoe dropped a week later. What was expected to be 0.5 inches of rain became 3 inches. The vineyards that made it through the heat often did so because of all the water put in the soil. So when on top of that Mother Nature added 3 more inches and we started cooling down, it was kind of done at that point for almost everyone left. We tried to hang another 3-4 weeks but it was useless much of the time, at least on the floor. Hillsides drained a bit better.
-
Most wine towards the end of harvest came off between 22-24.5 brix. Below is publicly available date from ETS labs which does close to 100% of grape and juice analysis in Napa. This scattergram is every brix test performed every day on Cab in Napa. You can see the huge spike of brix around Labor Day and that the least ripe grapes were picked last.
-
I picked Moulds after the heat (and before the rain) at a near-perfect 24.9 brix (I would have loved 0.6 more but could not complain, as it is a stunner.) Bonny’s Cab was 22.3 brix when the heat started in late August and I finally picked it off at 23.3 brix in mid-October. I did a 20% saignee and overall it is a really nice Oakville Cab, but not $195 nice. I will make my first ever $85 Oakville Cab at 13.6% alcohol that will be fun. Greer did not make it for me in 2022 but Aaron Pott picked off Rob’s stuff between the heat and rain and did far, far better than myself. A lot of Flinn Franc (Oak Knoll) raisined and I left 33% of it on the vine, only picking the non-raisins. What made the grade is phenomenal.
SUMMARY
I hate to call 2022 a “winemaker’s year” because much of it came down to luck around the heat wave with decisions made by the GROWER and winemaker. In some cases we guessed right and some wrong and some in between. For Piper, we did all three! The best results I saw were winemakers who visited every vineyard every day to make the best calls they could. Winemaking and vineyard managing at a distance had the poorest results, in my view.
I believe it will come down to “selection.” A handful of vineyards raisined almost their whole crop. That is a frightening scenario to contemplate. Imaging if one declassified 2020 and now might need to do it again in 2022? Wow.
Overall, hillsides seem to fare a little better in the heat than the valley floor due to the inversion layer (117F is only 111F at 2000ft, LOL.) But 100F is only 95F and that is a crucial difference for half of the heat wave. Also, the southern part of the valley did better than the hotter northern parts in the heat. But all that comes secondary to watering guesses. In my view, the best wines were made when picked between halfway through the heat and before the rains. That is a 12-day window. But that also might be up to half of the valley’s fruit! So there are really good wines out there.
But not many wineries can honestly claim all their fruit was good and without a stringent selection, or second wine, or some form of bulk-out, I believe we will have some watered-back, ultra-oaked wines and then also many lower alcohol, elegant wines, a very unusual barbell of style for one vintage.
Blending over-ripe juice and under-ripe juice may result in perfect alcohol levels but it does not result in perfect flavors. Some Cabs remind me of 2004 and 2009 Napa Cabs, when 28-30 brix was the goal. They can be flashy and juicy when young but I do not believe they last more than 7-10 years because they are fatigued from the get go. Live fast… die young.
This is actually not as dire as I am making it sound. Most of the winemakers I know well and hang out with DO a stringent selection and will declassify or bulk-out lots they don’t like. Know your winemaker! And buy from winemakers who make the style of Cab YOU like. Do you think DiCostanzo is going to suddenly release a 16% alcohol Cab? No. Or that Mike Smith will pawn off a 12.5% Cab? No. If you buy from a winery or winemaker that “makes wines we like to drink, ourselves” then most of the time you won’t go wrong.
I would not skip 2022! That is throwing out the baby with the rain water. But I would investigate the situation before plunking down $1200 for 6 bottles. If you like a winery owner or winemaker (especially if they are one and the same) and they have done right by you up til now, expect more of the same with vintage 2022. But 2022 is not like 2021, where you can throw a dart. It will pay to ask some questions.
32 Likes
Thank you Roy for a very detailed and informative post!
1 Like
Really insightful. Thank you!
1 Like
Roy, you are amazing with the information you so frequently share, and the time you take to do it - much appreciated, as always! 
3 Likes
Love this!!!
2 Likes