The 2022 Harvest Has Come and Gone
We had one good wine bath event (accidental, always), many early mornings and late evenings, a few cars stuck in the mud, and some philosophical moments on overturned buckets in front of broken-down equipment. Harvest is always an exciting time in the cellar. After a stint of seven-day weeks, juice-soaked clothes, pulling grape seeds from my hair in the evenings, and making wines we’re proud of with a fun and phenomenal crew, harvest coming to a close is always bittersweet. For now, our 2022 reds and a few whites will hide away in barrels for the next eight to eighteen months, and the rest of our whites and rose will hang out in tanks waiting to be bottled in the early spring. I am so excited to share them with y’all. They are a compliment to our great growers here in Texas, Seth’s winemaking savvy, and the backbreaking dedication of our crew Tyler and Maria.
It has been a dramatic weather year with a frigid winter, high winds this spring, and several weeks of temperatures over one hundred, and while this resulted in lower than expected yields, the 2022 vintage proved a unique challenge that has produced some excellent wines. We have processed 23 lots of grapes of 16 different varietals. All in all, just under 100 tons of fruit came through the cellar this year. Wine chemistry in Texas always proves challenging. This year especially, strong communication with growers about picking decisions was paramount in ensuring high wine quality, especially as the extremely hot weather drew water from grapes which resulted in more concentrated sugars sooner than in typical years. Later in harvest, and especially with our High Plains fruit, late-August rains caused a dilution of sugars, and in turn, a longer ripening period than we saw in our Hill Country Vineyards.
Despite the weather challenges, the wines are turning out beautifully, and as is always our goal, they tell the story of the time and place of their creation. We look forward to watching them grow, and even more, to serving them to you in the future.
