Lebron is NOT the GOAT
I stumbled on this thread googling ā2023 vintage review for Sonomaāā¦go figure. I love itā¦every year itās the next Best Year Ever!!!
I donāt get the stance that people in Cali feel that way. In fact 20 and 22 are not highly praised.
I find it more with the French wine merchants.
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Below are excerpts from an upcoming release email regarding 2022. If only all wine makers viewed things this way.
Every decision we make at Roy Piper Wines is oriented towards the long-term. The moderate erosion of our profit margin now is worth the long-term relationships we are building with you, our clients.
The 2022 vintage was a mixed bag for Napa, but we pulled out all the stops to make what we believe could be the Cabernet of the vintage. In keeping with our goal to only release wines we feel can stand with the finest, we declassified and bulked out a whopping 62% of our production in 2022. Only the cream of the crop made it to bottle and we believe this economic sacrifice allowed us to create a wine that exceeds the quality of our 2021 Cabernet, a claim few wineries will be able to make.
We are also releasing our first-ever Cabernet Franc, which is stunning, and can stand against the best Napa Francs, at any price. Video tasting notes of these two wines will be sent to you next week.
Our Cabernet production was down 1/3, due to the bulking-out of so many barrels, but this shortfall is made up for by the Franc release. This means there should (hopefully) be no reductions in overall allocations this year. Thus, for every 3-pack of Cabernet you purchased last year, this year your offer will be comprised of two bottles of Cabernet and one bottle of Cab Franc.
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And a great time to buy a house!
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sorry Iāve been out. Roy is proud of the work and selection he has made in 2022. But if you do read what he writes he has made no bones about the fact that 22 is an inferior vintage to both 21 and 23.
I believe one of the mentors to an evolving palate is experiencing a wine in an āinferiorā vintage and the opportunity to compare across others. While Iām not going deep on 2022, I want the future opportunities to taste alongside sister vintages. Sometimes one is surprised how these more challenging vintages develop.
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yes. Especially in burgundy. Some wines the āoffā vintages turn out lovely
I think that with Napa pricing as it is, and with less $$$ to go around, folks are looking for any reason not to purchase unless they feel they āhave toā - either because of the need to stay on a list OR due to FOMO.
2022 certainly was a challenging year, much moreso up in Napa due to the prolonged heat spike they saw during harvest. Are there going to be some excellent 2022ās? For sure - but will be there be some that donāt live up to expectations? Without a doubt.
Itās interesting to compare āoff vintagesā and why some may evolve better than others. 2011 was panned by many folks due to cooler weather and rains so folks had to pick earlier than they might have wanted. If your goal as a winemaker was to create a ābigger, bolderā wine, you would have been challenged . . . but if the goal was to produce the best of what Mother Nature gave you, you could have succeeded with a more āold schoolā wine - higher acid, less opulent.
2022, on the other hand, was not as forgiving. There are more ātricksā that can be applied now than ever before to ensure that you can still produce a āworthy wineā, even if Mother Nature does not oblige, but these can only go so far. If the grapes are completely raisined, thereās not much you can do about it.
2023 should be an interesting vintage to follow. Yep, it was a longer vintage meaning more āhang timeā and therefore more āpotentialā flavor development, but time will tell what folks are able to create . . .
And yep, I agree that one should experience wines from each vintage to understand differences between them - one might find that they prefer one āstyleā to another by doing so . . .
Cheers
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Just need to find a good marketing blurb to sell raisined wines. Call it āNaparoneā. Bet it would sell 
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I agree with your sentiment, though in the case of Napa specifically, Iām generally more inclined to want to explore the supposed lesser vintages like 1998, 2000 and 2011 that were deemed lesser because they were cooler and less ripe. I think those tend to overdeliver for my palate.
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Agreed, @Chris_Seiber
Also, thereās the increased cost of these wines to consider now - itās not as if wineries will be decreasing the price of their lesser vintages anytime soon, right?
Cheers
IMO 2011 is the poster child for this
Except - as Chris and others pointed out - that was a cooler year, not a heat spike year. Very different finished products for sure
Cheers
Point being 2011 was an unsung vintage, not that it was hot.
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100% agree. Just drank a sublime 2011 Detert Cabernet Sauvignon. Really great stuff and have found many more great examples out there.
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I bought some 2011 Bougetz āEminenceā Cabernet a few years ago during BerserkerDays, and it was so good I bought some more shortly after! A really fine wine, nice fruit and elegant (as you might expect from a cooler vintage). I am happy to still have a few bottles left in my cellar! @Thomas_Bougetz
Thanks for the note Paul,
2011 was a difficult year, but with a little selection, we were able to make some pretty ageable wine. Just not as much as we would in a normal year! Enjoy awayā¦
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I participated in a tasting group that met a few times to taste older California wines. 1940s-1970s. Mostly 70s. Several prominent winemakers were part of the group and took sample of all wines and sent them to the lab. The most surprising thing to them was how high the brett levels were in the majority of great wines.
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Well, my guess is that many if not all of those wines were bottled without filtration and ādryā may have been a relative term back then. And cleaning regiments at the winery, and with barrels, was very different then than now ā¦