2022 San Andreas Fault Estate Pinot Noir

Moving to the 2022s, the 2022 Pinot Noir San Andreas Fault pours a more saturated medium red color, and the nose shows notes of ripe cherries, dark stones, wild herbs, and fresh earth. Medium-bodied, it offers balanced density of fruit, with a supple texture, ripe tannins, and a clean, stony, mouthwatering finish. While they typically produced around 3000 cases of this cuvée, in this vintage they were only able to produce 900 cases. Drink 2025-2035. The current releases from Jasmine Hirsch include a first look at her 2023s, as well as the release of the 2022 single vineyard wines, which she holds back an additional year. While 2022 falls broadly into the category of a warm vintage for Sonoma, she notes that despite this being categorized as a vintage noted for its heat, they did not experience any notable heat until September. It never got above 92 degrees at Hirsch in August, and they had picked 70% of the fruit by Labor Day. (The peak was 108 degrees over Labor Day weekend.) For her, the yields were the defining factor in the concentration and density of the 2022 vintage.

The 2022 Pinot Noir Estate San Andreas Fault is quite the powerhouse. Incisive floral and savory notes weave through a deep core of fruit. All the natural intensity of the year comes through in this dense, concentrated Pinot. The 2022 is going to need time to soften. Yields were a minuscule 1.1 tons per acre.