Growing Season

The 2022 season advanced across a landscape shaped by three consecutive years of meagre rainfall. The rhythm of its progress was tempered by an unusual number of cool nights—often well below 55°F—counterbalancing the relative warmth of the days. Within Promontory’s sheltered boundaries and throughout its varied topography, moderation prevailed thanks in part to the distinctive weather patterns, which, from season to season, frequently diverge from those of the Napa Valley in general. A significant majority of the blocks were harvested before September’s heat spell; those that remained were nestled in forested corridors and shaded exposures. Elsewhere in the region, the year produced a wide array of interpretations; whereas Promontory seemed to follow its own internal logic, responding to the season with a certain quiet resilience. Harvest began on August 24 and was completed on September 10. The 88 resulting lots yielded 52 discrete fermentations.

Tasting Notes

The resulting wine bears the inimitable signature of the land, defined by a quiet, coiled intensity that seems to defy the vintage’s gravity, and carrying a sense of calm that only deepened as it moved from tank to cask to bottle. The aromatics open in shadow, surfacing as a restrained silhouette of elusive herbs and mineral lift, before a soft, radiance emerges. On the palate, the wine is tensile and prismatic, its energy refracted rather than linear, before resolving into a more focused clarity. At midpoint, this energy diffuses into toned flesh, with finely-grained tannins forming elegant curves of controlled strength. This vintage’s expression does not capture the overall vintage’s mood so much as it does our specific site’s singular temperament.