2022 Piedmont
Blend: 27% Grüner Veltliner, 25% Sauvignon Blanc, 18% Chardonnay, 11% Albariño, 11% Viognier, 8% Muscat
Date of harvest: August 16 - September 7
Élevage: oak barrels six months
Quantity produced: 114 cases
Alcohol by volume: 12.5%
Growing Season: Rarely do we get generosity and high quality in the same year. However, the 2022 vintage gifted us with both! A warm dry summer with just enough rain to keep things humming along was followed by a very dry harvest season, with only one significant rain event. The wines have very good acidity, even better than the 2021's. The reds were uniformly healthy, and we got to pick them at our leisure, so we could wait for just the right ripeness levels without worrying about weather events. We got our first wines from Live Edge this year and, while we don't expect the same level of complexity we get from the older vines at BAV, we were happy with the quality of the fruit.
Wine Making Notes: Estate-grown and sustainably grown on our 146-acre farm, our grapes are tended by hand multiple times throughout the growing season and are harvested by hand in the fall. After an overnight rest in the cool winery, the white wine grapes are sorted, destemmed, and gently pressed before the juice is transferred into stainless steel fermentation tanks, where vinification is done at a cool temperature using natural yeasts. Fermentation generally takes about a month to complete. For our 2022 Piedmont, however, after the individual grape varieties are pressed, a portion of each variety’s juice is set aside and then blended before being co-fermented and aged in oak barrels until the wine is bottled the next Spring (typically around 8 months in neutral oak barrel).
About Piedmont:
Piedmont is a blended white wine in the tradition of our Bedlam and Quartzite (another white wine blend that we last released from our 2015 vintage). The first Piedmont featured three of our (at that time) five white wines, with Grüner Veltliner being the predominant grape, and a small percentage of Syrah (3%), that likely gave an acidity boost to the wine. Our second release, the 2021 Piedmont, featured all six of our white wine grapes with, once again, our Grüner Veltliner playing a leading role (slightly). In fact, this wine featured the exact same blend as the 2021 Bedlam – the only difference being that the Piedmont was barrel-fermented and aged before bottling whereas the Bedlam stayed in stainless steel tank. For this, our third Piedmont release, the blending is different than the 2022 Bedlam. Piedmont still has a bit more Grüner Veltliner in its blend, with our Sauvignon Blanc following in a close second ahead of the other white grape varieties; and it is still co-fermented and aged in barrel until bottling.
Color: Medium Gold, clear
Aromas: Sweet Floral/honeysuckle, yellow apple, peach, citrus, herbal, lemon, pineapple, banana candy
Palate: weighty and rich, juicy, and lingering, mouth filling. Flavors of apple, lemon, peach, pineapple, citrus, and pear with soft toast vanilla/caramel notes. Finish is lingering with hints of salinity, mineral/crushed rock, citrus zest, and white pepper.
Narrative: Our medium-bodied 2022 Piedmont feels weighty, rich, and creamy yet is juicy and lingering - a great sip whether paired with food or on its own. The sweet floral aromas lead to a variety of stone, citrus, and tropical fruit flavors that have an undertone of delicate vanilla and caramel notes. The finish is lingering with citrus, mineral, and spice notes.
Serve Temperature: 60-66