a place for chenin blanc
dec 2023
I love Chenin Blanc, and it has a special place in my heart because my late father, Mark Anderson, used to regularly order Chenin with mussels at Brasserie Four, his favorite French restaurant in our hometown of Walla Walla. The first vintage of this wine was made in his honor and I see every subsequent vintage as another small way to remember his impact and encouragement.
The 2022 vintage of Chenin Blanc is a wonderful expression of its fruit and its site. We've taken what we've learned about the ripening habits of this grape from the previous two vintages and honed in on an optimal range of acidity and ripeness. The result is a beautifully tart but fruit inclusive expression of Chenin, and one of my all time favorite pét nats that I’ve produced.
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.
Chenin has usually been on the earlier side of harvest, and 2022 was no exception. Upon its arrival in the cellar, this fruit went into the press whole cluster. From pressing, it was cold settled for 7 days, then racked into stainless steel for its primary fermentation. Bottled at 1.25bx in December 2022, it aged in bottle for 5 months before hand disgorgement in May.
wines