Hi all,
Need some advises for the future strategic planning on purchasing.
I am pretty much out of space right now and wife have been paying close attention to my bank account so it is super hard to buy…
So for cabernet based/Zin, how is Napa/SCM looking between vintage 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025?
And for the Pinots, how is Sonoma/SCM looks between the same vintages in your opinion?
I did get a bit of 2023 in hand, and not sure if I should focus on 2023 vintage, or jump on 2022 for ready right away, or should wait for future vintages…
With the wine industry right now the future vintages should be same price as 2023 if not cheaper…right?
23-24-25 looking great in California. I think price will slightly increase over next 2 vintages or stay the same since market and the economy doesn’t look good.
Thanks, That apply to both Cab/Zin and Pinot?
And when we talk about better here on the WB site, I am assuming it is more subtle, austere, and less fruity, correct?
I have only tried a few 2023s (ones that weren’t final products and hadn’t been bottled yet), and they were incredible. That being said, many producers made good to very good 2022 wines, and I have found 2022 wines to be a bit more open earlier than other vintages, especially 2021.
I chatted with a bunch of winemakers and general consensus is that grape reaches phenolic and physiological ripeness, greater acidity at lower brix. Henceforth wine in these vintages are potentially more elegant, more depth, nuances and are built for longer cellaring time. I’m in restrained and elegant camp so cooler vintages are preferred here.
California wines for those vintages will be delicious. 2022 for Napa Cab is good not spectacular. Pricing will be the same or a touch more each vintage. Pricing will not go down…
A lot more site to site variance in the SCM compared to napa/sonoma. Colder years like 2023 could have been tricky for some higher elevation Cabs, but is a generally fantastic year across the board. 2022 is probably lacking some depth but i’ve found the colder SCM wines are more dependable that year, compared to the napa/sonoma wines which vary greatly in quality from producer to producer. 2024 looking average to slightly above average, which in California is still great wine. 2025 is quite early to tell but showing promise, will probably be better than 24 but worse that 23.
Personally, I’d only be focused on producer for those vintages. Vintage is then more about when to consume them.
Btw, I was picking up some wines at K&L Sunday, browsing while they assembled my orders. I saw the '21 Lexington Cab at $20! Checked my phone to make sure that was correct and saw their '21 Sem/Sauv is also $20. Absolute steals for fantastic wines, so I bought some of each. Then I bumped into a friend and made him buy some. Don’t snooze on the Sem/Sauv (“Alma”)!
For Napa
22: very mixed
23: Excellent but classical structure that needs time in the cellar
24: Excellent, very ripe and sexy.
25: Mixed. Floor better than hills, northern Napa better than south.
Well, parts of north Howell Mtn may have been smoke tainted with the Pickett Fire, Not all of it, perhaps not even the majority, but portions. Mountains sometimes ripen later, or earlier, depending on where they are. Those that ripened later may not have gotten as ripe as some people would like. The Northern half of the valley was picked around our mini-heat wave before all the rains, so areas like Calistoga and St. Helena did quite well. But in many cases, the further south one went, even in the center of the valley around Oakville and Rutherford, the ripeness level dropped. A great many hung through the first batch of minor rains, which generally worked-out. But whether hanging through the second batch worked is debatable. I think generally the vintage has lower ripeness for many wines. As almost always is the case, excellent wines will come from 2025 in Napa, but it will take time to see where it worked out and where It did not. No way can this be called an excellent vintage because in those vintages you can throw a dart and hit excellence. That is not 2025. That being said, it’s better than what most people released in 2022. But not up there with 2023 and 2024.