For our sparkling wines we use two methods to help minimize sediment without forcefully removing it with fining agents or filtration processes. First, we hand-disgorge bottles. Disgorging is the process of removing lees and sediment after bottle fermentation is complete. It is an incredibly labor intensive process, but each and every Pet Project has been carefully bottled by a member of our staff.

Arete Vineyard straddles the top of Radar Hill, just outside of Othello, Washington. The 250 acres of vines were planted in 1983, and are managed organically and certified by the USDA. The Chenin Blanc is grown and sourced from the North Slope of the
vineyard and managed entirely by hand.

2022 was a year of extremes in the Columbia Valley. A late spring blizzard occurred right at bud break, and was followed by cool temperatures through most of June. This
put bloom two to three weeks behind recent years. Summer seemed to finally arrive in July and August with multiple 100-plus degree days. Then, a miraculous and unseasonably warm Fall came to the rescue. Temperatures were above average for the entire month, creating even ripening at lower brix. With larger yields and a shorter window for harvest, we were challenged for capacity, using every vessel that we had to process the fruit, but managed to get all of our fruit in by the end of October. Overall, it’s a stunning vintage with great structure, flavor, and color.

Compared to 2021, the fruit was harvested much later and arrived in the cellar in late September. Pressed together, we cold settled this wine for 7 days before racking into a stainless steel tank to co-ferment cold in our barrel room. This rosé was fermented in stainless steel and spent roughly 9 months on lees prior to disgorgement. Racked once for clarity prior to bottling, it was bottled on December 8th and hand-disgorged over two days in August of 2023. Unfiltered, unfined, less than 10 ppm of SO2 added at disgorgement.

If we had to assign a word to this vintage, it would be healthy. The impacts of growing and sourcing organic grapes continues to amaze us in the cellar. Every bin of grapes we brought in, whether from our estate vineyard, or from our partner growers across Washington state, were exceptionally robust and healthy. A greater marker for this health is YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) - a measure of how much nitrogen is available for yeast to consume during fermentation, essentially indicating how strong the fermentation will be. Nitrogen is a critical grape which affects the rate and completion of fermentation, fermentation bouquet and style of wine. Despite sounding less than exciting, our YAN was incredible this year, with all our fruit coming in at the ideal YAN levels. Our ferments were fast and powerful, with absolutely no supplements of any kind needed.

One of the main pillars in our approach to natural winemaking is a commitment to natural ferments, no matter the environmental circumstances. Each year we have enjoyed the terroir reflected in the subtle flavors released from the natural fermentations, however this year, we cannot wait to taste the hardiness of such healthy vineyards reflected in the wines.