2022 Merlot, Bacchus Vineyard

The vintage of 2022 started with a very cool, wet spring and a surprise snow occurrence in April that set everything back even further. Summer temperatures finally arrived in the third week of June, but the growing season was still a good three weeks behind. Fortunately, the month of October was above average in warmth allowing for the fruit to fully ripen.

This is the first vintage of Bacchus Merlot that is labeled with the White Bluffs American Viticultural Area (AVA). Many of the vines planted at Bacchus Vineyard were planted in 1972 and are some of the oldest producing vines in the state. Yet the new AVA wasn’t established until 2021. White Bluffs is a sub-appellation of the Columbia Valley and so while the broader Columbia Valley AVA designation is still technically correct, the White Bluffs AVA is more precise, and we will use it going forward.

This is a Merlot with nice weight that is clean, balanced, and perfumed. In tasting this wine, an interesting and very clear contrast appeared between the men and the women on our staff. On one side was the view that this wine has beautiful, dark bramble berry characters, woven with plum, cocoa, and vanilla, and then finishing long and smooth. On the other side was the opinion that the fruits are more red in focus – cherries, and raspberries woven with ripened blueberries. Assistant winemaker Enrique Ibarra described the spice as reminiscent of coffee consuela, which is a Mexican spiced coffee made in an earthenware pot that includes brown sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes additional spices such as cloves, anise, or orange peel. This is such a great example of how our experiences mean everything to our interpretation of a wine!