Oregon’s Brilliant 2022 Vintage: The Harvest That Almost Wasn’t!
As the 2022 wine harvest unfolded in Oregon I followed the Instagram feeds, spoke with winemakers, and read vintage reports, all while taking note of phrases like "miracle vintage" that started popping up all over the place. To say that the 2022 growing season in Oregon’s Willamette Valley was a rollercoaster is somewhat of an understatement! The ride that growers and winemakers experienced was more like a runaway train loaded with highly explosive cargo!
The winter was long, cold, and wet. The vines awoke from their winter dormancy as a warm dry March set in. Budbreak was slightly earlier than historical averages. However, April 11th-15th saw an unprecedented cold front come through the region blanketing Portland and many vineyards in snow. The freezing temperatures getting down to 26F caused severe frost damage to vines with many growers reporting 75+% loss of primary shoots. So, now the vast majority of the region was reliant on the vines rebounding, pushing fresh shoots if there was to be any hope of a crop at all. This also set up many months of agonizing anxiety to see what the end of the growing season would look like as most vineyards were now 4-6 weeks behind schedule. Growers now desperately needed a great summer and warm, dry autumn to salvage the disastrous start... and thankfully, that is exactly what they got! By the time harvest started, the horrors of that April frost seemed a distant memory as pristine fruit made its way to wineries.
The wines from the 2022 season are fantastic across the board. The fruit profiles are pure, expressive, rich, and vibrant. There’s plenty of freshness and definition to the wines. The delayed harvest meant, despite the warm weather that persisted into October, the shorter days and longer, cooler nights at that time in the season allowed beautiful acid retention to balance the ripe fruit. The critical acclaim for the vintage bears witness to this; every report published has been bristling with huge scores and glowing praise for the wines. They’re easy to love, supremely accessible, flavorful, and energetic. I’m thrilled to have such a fantastic array of these 2022 wines in stock right now. To follow is a list of some of the very best wines of the vintage that will allow you to enjoy the wonderful bounty of the vintage that almost wasn’t! Cheers!
2022 Norris "Landscape - Norris McKinley Vyd" Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir $14.95 (EW $45) Perhaps the finest value I’ve seen from the ‘22 vintage (and to be honest one of the best values in the entire store currently). This delightful Pinot Noir comes from a small, 10-acre estate planted in 2007 to a mix of heritage clones (Coury, Wädenswil, Pommard), plus some Dijon 667 and 115. The site sits in the heart of Ribbon Ridge, probably the most highly coveted sub-region of the Willamette Valley and the smallest AVA in Oregon. The soils are Willakenzie Series, an ancient marine sedimentary soil uplifted into the Chehalem Mountains. Owner/winemaker Robert McKinley learned his craft at famed wineries such as Williams-Selyem, The Hilt/Jonata, Trisaetum, and New Zealand’s Craggy Range. Beautiful focus, crunchy, bright fruits of the forest, hard ground spices, agarwood, incense, chalky earth elements. Very elegant and refined, I love the energy and lift here. Just a ridiculous value at our Insider’s Advantage price of almost 70% off.
2022 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills Pinot Noir $29.95 96DC The 2022 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills bottling was one of the first examples of the ‘22 vintage that came across my desk. Now, keep in mind I had very high expectations for this wine: Arterberry was already one of my favorite producers in the region, and I was eager to see how they had captured the season. Despite those expectations I was still absolutely flabbergasted by how good it was! The purity of fruit, the sheer grace and brilliance of the texture. The layers and depth of flavor on the palate while remaining ethereal and lifted. Perfect ripeness, silken texture, piquant acidity, sultry, savory, earthy tones. A wine you can quaff without care for its easy going approachability, or one you can muse over for hours, teasing apart its intricate nuances. This is an absolute benchmark wine for the quality of the vintage and is also a powerful statement proving that brilliant wines don't have to be expensive. Decanter recently wrote up this wine, awarding 96 points and suggesting that “this might be the best deal in American wine.”
The wine is almost entirely from the Maresh Estate plus neighboring Weber. The youngest vines in the blend were planted in 1997, then blocks from 1991, 1983, 1970. All own-rooted, dry-farmed, organic. All destemmed, native ferments in mostly neutral oak for 18 months.
Cristom
Cristom Vineyards is deeply committed to wholistic and biodynamic farming practices.
The 2022 releases from Cristom are absolutely stunning across the board. Winemaker Daniel Estrin moved up to Oregon to take over the winemaking several years ago after a long stint under the guidance of Ted Lemon at Littorai. He seems to have really hit his stride here with arguably the best lineup of the vintage.
2022 Cristom "Louise Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay $54.95 97D 97WE The Chardonnay block at Louise is just under half an acre. Planted in 1995 to Clone 95, this is a jewel of a parcel that only produces a tiny amount of wine each year. Incredibly racy, fresh, salty, mineral driven. Packed with notes of Makrut lime, freshly grated Buddha's hand, and lemongrass, it's floral and zesty. Hints of Marcona almond, oyster shell and chalk in the electric, lingering finish. Only a very small amount is available, don’t miss it.
2022 Cristom "Mt. Jefferson Cuvée" Eola-Amity Pinot Noir $39.95 95IWR 94JD 94JS Mt. Jefferson has long been a favorite at K&L and continues to go from strength to strength. It’s the perfect introduction to the Cristom style. In years gone by the wine was largely sourced fruit from across the Willamette Valley. More recently it became more focused on just the Eola-Amity Hills appellation. With the 2022 vintage 75% of the wine is estate grown with just a small amount of absolutely top-notch fruit from Eola-Amity Hills’ neighbors Witness Tree and RPG Vineyards. It is made with a 52% whole-cluster, native-yeast ferment and aged in 22% new French oak. This is a phenomenal deal in classy Pinot Noir with a brilliant core of dark cherry fruit, dried herbs, truffle, mulling spices, and forest floor. Accessible and delicious now, but also certainly has the potential to age 8-10 years and probably more.
2022 Cristom "Jessie Vineyard" Eola-Amity Pinot Noir $79.95 96D 96JS Jessie comes from the steepest block on the estate with a 30% grade. The vines were planted in 1994 to Pommard and a mix of Dijon clones. Farming is organic and biodynamic. The wine was fermented with native yeast, 50% whole-cluster, and aged in 30% new oak for 18 months. One of the most exuberant expressions from Cristom: bright red berries, woodsy spices, citrus peel, clove and brambly, undergrowth.
2022 Cristom "Marjorie Vineyard" Eola-Amity Pinot Noir $79.95 97JD 96D The core of this wine is from the oldest remaining block on the property planted on its own roots in 1982. Clones are old-school selections of Pommard, Wädenswil, and Martini. Some of this block has now been replanted since the early 2000s due to Phylloxera. One again 50% whole-cluster native fermentation. This time 36% new French oak which is easily absorbed by this dense, powerful, brooding and structured wine. Very serious Pinot Noir.
Walter Scott
Walter Scott makes truly life-changing Chardonnay. Honestly, I’m not kidding. If you haven’t had a wine from Walter Scott yet you’re seriously missing out. They also make exceptional Pinot Noir…basically they’re just really really good at making wine, period. Hand-crafted by husband-and-wife team Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon, many of Walter Scott’s wines are very small production, some only 100 cases. We have carried the wines every year and are lucky to get a really broad selection of their releases (even if that only means a couple cases of some single vineyards). Absolute dedication to quality is the philosophy here and it resonates throughout the entire range.
2022 Walter Scott "La Combe Verte" Willamette Valley Chardonnay $34.95 94D 94IWR 93RP This is absolutely the best introduction to Walter Scott. It gives you an instant snapshot of what their wines are all about, and it’s an experience you won’t soon forget. Laser focus, lots of smoky flint, struck match, crystalline citrus fruit, wet stone mineral, split white oak, raw almond, toasted barley grains. An explosive, mouthwatering wine that may well suck you into the universe of sexy reductive Chardonnay for eternity!
2022 Walter Scott "Koosah Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay $79.95 97D One of my favorite bottlings from Walter Scott and a vineyard site that really seems to work perfectly with their style. Koosah is one of the highest vineyards in the Willamette Valley, sitting at 1,000-foot elevation in the Eola-Amity Hills. The site has extremely rocky soils, steep slopes, and is farmed with love and care by the Chambers family. The fruit from here has so much linear intensity and mineral infusion. Combined with Ken and Erica’s handling in the cellar, this wine is a model of coiled intensity, electric acidity, and tension from start to finish. Decant and don’t serve too cold to allow this wine to expand. Easily 20 years of aging potential here.
2022 Walter Scott "X Novo Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay $99.95 98D 97WE 97JD Here’s a wine that’s up there with the very best of the vintage and ready to go toe-to-toe with the best white Burgundies out there. From a small vineyard in Eola-Amity, X Novo is a high-density planting of thoroughly diverse mixed clones (up to 20 different Chardonnay selections). This wine has everything turned up to 11. The flinty reduction, powdery white florals, racy electric acidity, penetrating minerality, tangy, mouthwatering citrus, preserved lemon, tangerine peel, salted limes, nutty savory oak, plus linear tension and reverberating energy. This demands proper treatment—decant, use your best stemware, poach a halibut… or fresh crab? The best of the best. Very limited.
2022 Walter Scott "La Combe Verte" Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $34.95 94RP 94IWR The “entry level” wine at Walter Scott is probably the envy of many people’s flagship wines… it’s that good. ‘La Combe Verte’ meaning ‘the Green Valley’ is sourced from iconic vineyards, including Freedom Hill, Sojeau, Temperance Hill, and Witness Tree—all sites that are the crème de la crème of vineyards in the region. All the fruit is destemmed for a native fermentation, then aged for 10 months in 25% new French oak. The nose is a melange of crunchy red fruits, with darker cherry tinges, leaf litter, amaro-like alpine herbs, and a subtle gamey, savory note almost Northern Rhône–like. So much complexity for a relatively inexpensive wine.
2022 Walter Scott "Cuvée Ruth" Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir $49.95 95IWR 94RP 94D Cuvée Ruth is a blend of several “Grand Cru” vineyard sites in the Eola-Amity Hills: Justice, Koosah, Sojeau, Temperance Hill, Witness Tree, and X Novo. All are planted on volcanic origin soils. The wine just leaps from the glass with wild berries, açaí, baking spice, dark rose petals, and rocky mineral tones. Lifted and elegant, but with a noble, brooding, earthy core giving a distinctive sense of place.
2022 Walter Scott "Sojeau Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir $79.95 95D 95JD A vineyard site with a fascinating story. Owner/farmer Denny Peseau has been growing grapes in the Eola-Amity Hills since the 1970s. As the longtime proprietor of Eola Springs Vineyard, Denny always looked up to a site further on the southwest ridge of the hills—a site people considered too exposed to the cold Van Duzer gap winds; the soils too rocky with huge volcanic boulders strewn throughout the volcanic clay loam. The vines have been farmed organically since planting in 2007. The site has wonderful natural balance, the sheer amount of rocks in the soil limiting the vigor of the vines, while the clay holds water alleviating too much stress in the summer months. The vineyard site, though relatively young, quickly gained a reputation for producing silky, elegant, yet powerful Pinot Noir with folks dubbing it the Musigny of Oregon. This wine has a very festive profile to me: it’s like traditional British Christmas cake, liquor-soaked cherries, spiced dried fruit, citrus peel, Turkish delight, cranberry. The tannins are super fine and silky, a dusty earth component, too. Fascinating.