Napa growers are accustomed to riding heatwaves, but managing the fallout of the sustained, extreme heat that hit Northern California in September 2022 was sometimes easier said than done.

I’ve now had the opportunity to taste nearly over a thousand bottled 2022 wines from throughout Napa Valley. The results are mixed, yet many winemakers handled the challenges of this vintage admirably and produced solid wines. There are even a few sparks of jaw-dropping greatness, which are largely down resources, wise harvest decisions, and the luck of vineyard location. This is certainly not a vintage for buyers to avoid—there are many compelling, age-worthy wines worth seeking out. But, apart from varying quality levels, there is a far broader range of red wine styles than we would see in a consistently great vintage, ranging from under-ripe fruit characters (from early harvesting before the heatwave) to over-ripe, jammy, dried berry characters (not reacting quickly enough to the accelerating conditions), and a few Frankenstein monsters (clumsy 2022 and 2023 blends).

The finest 2022 Napa Cabernets highlight the important point that optimal ripeness of fruit is not a single point on a graph, but a valid range of ripeness expressions, the ideal expression depending on your taste.

From what I saw (living in Napa) and discussed with winemakers, being able to harvest everything at a single desired level of ripeness was virtually impossible in 2022. Therefore, the most essential winemaker tool in 2022 was blending—using varying ripeness levels to craft wines with sufficient layers, intensity, brightness, textural interest, and harmony. Blending thus is a remarkable skill, and it shows in the successful wines. For others, it was easier said than done.

By 2022, Napa growers were accustomed to heatwaves before harvest. 2017 and 2020 are notorious wildfire/smoke taint vintages, but both were also afflicted with extreme heat events damaging crops near Labor Day (the first Monday of September). Up until Labor Day 2022, the weather had been relatively benign. Abundant autumn/winter rains at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022 alleviated the three-year drought. The 2022 budbreak was early, occurring in mid to late March or early April for most Bordeaux varieties. In fact, May, June, July, and August 2022 were about as smooth sailing as grape growing gets.

Most white grapes were harvested in mid- to late August—before the vintage’s challenges began. Judging from the excellent 2022 Napa Valley white wines I’ve tasted, the vintage was very good and relatively consistent for white wines. Impressive concentration and varietal expression are offset by great tension in the best Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay examples.

As for the still-hanging red grapes, by September 1st, an impending heatwave was in clear view. It was forecasted to descend on Northern California on September 3rd and hold for up to six days. Grape growers were braced for the impact of the oncoming Labor Day temperatures, which were predicted to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Winemakers called the picks for whatever fruit was ready in the week prior, but many had to take a wait-and-see stance with their under-ripe Cabernets. Merlots were mostly harvested before the heatwave since they tend to hit the ripeness window earlier and are more sensitive to heat damage. If 2022 has any silver lining, it’s in showing winemakers that beautiful, energetic, expressive Merlot doesn’t need to follow the Cabernet extended hang-time formula, nor should it.

Sam Kaplan is the winemaker for a collection of top estates in Napa Valley, including Arkenstone, Vangone, Momento Mori, and Vida Valiente (where he is also a partner). Anyone who loves Sam Kaplan’s winemaking style knows that he tends to harvest on the earlier side of the ripeness window. He is usually the first to call the pick at Dr. Crane; in 2022, he made the wise decision to bring it in before the heat, as did a few others, such as Realm. Dr. Crane is a hot site, and there were a number of winemakers who got caught out letting it hang through the heat.

“When Napa people talk about a tough year, they tend to talk about 2011,” said Sam as I sat to taste his 2022s. “But 2022 was legit tough. You had to really be on your stuff. You had to be ahead of the game. I like freshness, so I tend to pick early. In 2022, that really paid off. A lot of my early ripening sites got harvested when they would have been harvested anyway. It had been dry, and there wasn’t a ton of crop to ripen. As soon as I saw the heat coming, I looked for what could be picked, and I got picking. Thank God I trusted my gut!”

“We started harvesting at the end of August,” said Maya Dalla Valle, winemaker at Dalla Valle in Oakville. “So, we had some fruit in before the heat. When it came, we picked right through the heat event.”

Christopher Tynan, winemaker at Cliff Lede in Stags Leap District, commented, “In 2022, we brought all our best blocks in before the heatwave.”

It was a good call. The Cliff Lede 2022s are some of the brightest sparks of the vintage.

When the heatwave hit, it was worse than anticipated. In Napa town and Carneros, the temperature reached 116 degrees F on the hottest day, with a low of 69 degrees in the evening. Yountville and Stags Leap District producers reported a high of 117 degrees. Growers in Oakville and St. Helena reported highs of 118 degrees. The impact of such extreme, sustained heat was potentially brutal. Quality depended largely on how growers supported the vines and fruit throughout this period The most effective results were from irrigation prior to and during the heat, shade cloths, and misting. This isn’t to say that everything could be saved.

“We couldn’t make Vida Valiente High Ranch from Coombsville in 2022,” conceded Sam. “The vineyard just didn’t perform well.”

To this point, Napa Cabernet collectors will notice a number of missing vineyards from many wineries’ 2022 portfolios due to the inability to make something decent from the fruit. Dominus is an extreme example of this, declaring soon after harvest that they would produce nothing in 2022.

While many Cabernet Sauvignon vines were said to have shut down for a spell after the heat event, several winemakers commented that Cabernet Franc came through relatively unscathed.

“The Cabernet Franc is more resilient,” said Tony Arcudi from Kapscandy. “It deals with the more extreme temperatures better.”

Maya Dalla Valle said the same. “The Cabernet Franc did very well after the heat, but the Cabernet Sauvignon froze. We had to sort the Cabernet Sauvignon a lot.”

Lovers of the Maya label will be excited to hear that the 2022 Maya is composed of 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is the first time since 1989 that more Cabernet Franc than Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. And what a beauty! The 2022 Maya comes highly recommended.

Shortly after the heatwave, it rained. To be clear, there wasn’t a lot of rain—just 0.5 to 1.2 inches (depending on location) in Napa Valley in mid-September. But it was enough to make berries swell and force winemakers to have to delay harvest while the dilution dissipated. But by this time, it was clear which vines had the stamina to keep ripening vs those that were finished for the season and would never resume after the blockage. In the latter case, there was no point in letting the bunches hang any longer.

As fruit began coming in, a couple of uncommon observations triggered frequent visits to ETS Labs:

1. Vine blockage meant color accumulation and tannin development were concerning issues in 2022. In most instances where the vines had to weather the heat storm, the berries didn’t have a lot of color to give, and the tannins weren’t entirely ripe (and in some wines, downright rugged).
2. Some winemakers commented that fruit was coming in with elevated levels of VA (volatile acidity), which necessitated treatments, although some winemakers claimed that the VA levels came down after fermentation. Stuck fermentations were also reported as an issue in 2022.

Although 2022 wine grape yields for California were down overall, they were up by 5% versus 2021 for Napa Valley. However, 2021 was a particularly small vintage for the region, and 2022 is down significantly on more typical crops such as 2018 or 2019.

As for the style of the vintage, it’s like two vintages in one with a few oddball outliers, largely due to blending over-ripe wines with too much of the lighter, fresher 2023 vintage (more on this below). Wines made predominately from fruit that came in before and/or in the early part of the heatwave are bright, fresh, and crunchy, though in a few cases, they lack the layers and gravitas that would have come with a couple more weeks (or more) on the vine. The best of those made from fruit that came in during and after the heatwave are rich, ripe, and opulent in that distinctively solar-vintage way—notably bigger wines.

As Maya Dalla Valle said, “You can’t fight the vintage. It’s a bigger vintage, and the wines are bigger.”

I have tasted very impressive red wines made in both the before and after styles that are right up there with the best Napa Valley vintages. Conversely, I’ve tasted a few raisiny/pruney wines with chewy tannins and rustic characters, which did not fare well after the heat event.

Lastly, as mentioned at the beginning of this report, one of the most effective winemaking strategies was blending earlier-harvested wines with later-harvested ones. And, of course, the ace that Napa Valley has up its sleeve was the 2023 vintage. A little 2023 freshness lift should have worked nicely, but achieving a seamless blend was easier said than done. Indeed, most winemakers said that they took advantage of the bumper crop of vibrant, cooler-vintage fruit that the 2023 vintage provided. Legally, in Napa Valley, 5% of another vintage can be added to the final blend. Off the record, I heard winemakers point out that they knew of some who used 10% or more. This is very hard to prove, yet certainly shows in a few wines I tasted, equating to odd over-ripe/under-ripe Frankenstein results. Consultant winemaker Jean Hoefilger said he kept the 2023 additions to around 3% at most. Likewise, Benoit Touquette, winemaker/partner at Realm, said 2-3% seemed to be the sweet spot, beyond which there was a point of diminishing returns. Winemakers like these, who were on top of their games, forged 2022 Napa Valley wines that are well worth cherry-picking.