The 2022 vintage was a beguiling one. A brief winter — something we are not unaccustomed to this close to the Pacific Ocean — rolled into the cool, protracted spring and summer for which the Domaine hopes and the western Sta. Rita Hills are known. This long growing season provides slow, even ripening with significant concentration and acid retention in the fruit, encouraging us to ferment Pinot Noirs with whole bunches and mature them in a portion of new oak barriques. 

2022 was not without dramatics. In the final days of August, a precipitous heat spike hit the Sta. Rita Hills and followed into the cellar. Undeterred, the effort from our teams in the vineyard and winery carefully guided these wines into being. While we do not use temperature controls to influence the fermentations, they retained freshness and verve throughout a warm cuvaison; each parcel of the Domaine carrying its unique thumbprint with respect to the vintage. The 2022 cuvées show fruit and strength backed by a hallmark aromatic lift, firm tannins and prodigious ageability. They bear witness to the singular soils and microclimate of this piece of ancient seabed.

Tasted without aeration the 2022 La Côte is as complex as ever, showing the vintage in its vivacious, honeyed, soft-fruited side. This dimension is quickly met by a powerful, insistent base of bark, earth, green leaves, and tart berries before finishing in a rush of tea-like, slightly bitter-tinged tannins and a clang of acid-driven energy. These closing notes contain clues to the wine’s future. Perhaps a bit intense for immediate drinking, they presage a graceful passage to maturity in which the flavors will meld and the texture will become smooth as glass.

In short, all this beautiful, romantic complexity is a good head on the shoulders of a strong body—the wine is impressive today(if given some air), but will evolve majestically.

Bottled only in magnum, Sous le Chêne 2022 may be understandably a bit slow to open when tasted upon or shortly after release. In this state, its first aromas highlight the wine’s savoriness, driven by peppery, herbal, and tea-like elements. Given some time, though, the wine’s core of pure, lifted berry fruit emerges and blends with the savory side into a complex merger of sensations. If the entire magnum is not consumed in one go, the wine evolves beautifully over several days, as its fruit notes become ever more ethereal and pervasive. Texturally, the wine is polished and soothing to the tongue. It will have a long and glorious career in magnum.

Upon first pour, the nose offers a riot of ripe strawberries, both summery fresh and gently warmed strawberry compote—rich, thick, fruity, irresistible. After fifteen or so minutes the ripe fruit is joined by a group of earthy aromas—wet stone, peppery bramble, and savory herbs. The wine’s gentle and easygoing texture, while studded with polished but young and noticeable tannins, belies the tightly wound core within. While loaded with youthful zest, the wine will reward the patient as these elements integrate and grow with complexity over many years.

The quiet intensity detectable in the mid-palate leads inevitably to a long and persistent finish. Even in its youth the wine is complex and approachable, but will have a long life in bottle.

As ever a welcoming and engaging wine from the moment the cork is drawn, gregarious Memorious throws off a homey, inviting scent of warm, ripe berries, tea, tobacco, and cedar. This Memorious is texturally more tightly wound than some of its predecessors, awash in youthful energy that will settle down over its first year or two in bottle. As it finds its form, though, you will experience a delicious and generous wine whose concentration and force are deceptively subtle. 

A savory DDLC in which the pronounced underbrush and wild forest mushrooms subtly shake hands with the sun-warmed flavors of cherry and red currant. Texturally, it’s neither coarse nor fine, but somewhere in between. With a nice feeling of density and chewiness, the wine pleases the tongue as much as it does the nose.