If 2021 was the year of the late June Heat Dome, 2022 stands out for a mid-April cold snap that hit vines right at or immediately after bud break. Just like 2021, one of the most interesting questions has been what effects this outlier event would have on the wines.

My impression so far is that the elements that made up 2022 - whatever percentage of it was that cold snap - have created an uneven and bifurcated vintage that reminds me of 2013, where there's a set of wines that seem "normal" and unaffected, and a set of wines that just seem less than they should be, and it's hard to predict which camp a wine will be in until you spend time with it

Because of this, as much as it pains me as a fan of the home team, and as much as it hurts to say this on the back of the disastrous 2020 vintage, I'm passing on most 2022 offers and planning to buy the least of any vintage since 2013.

A lot of people might disagree. I just find the wines too uneven, a bit meh, or both.

I'll get a good laugh if I'm proven wrong on this, by the way. 2011 really caught me out and I ended up scrambling to buy back vintages because I didn't understand what cold vintage wines were like on release. Maybe this will be a repeat. That would delight me. After all, we primarily learn from being wrong.

For now though - and maybe this is a guy with an overloaded cellar talking - I'm saving my money and the cellar space to overweight on 2023 which, based on a few Willamette Valley bottlings I've tasted so far, I have a feeling is going to be killer.