2022 Dianthus

The core of our Dianthus comes from the oldest section of French-sourced vines at Tablas Creek. In 1994, two years after our French vines had been released from their USDA-mandated quarantine, we had propagated just enough to plant a few rows of each varietal on a hill overlooking our vine nursery. Over the next few years, we used cuttings from these plants to plant the rest of our vineyard. These few rows of high-quality vines ripen later than the rest of the vineyard, so we harvest the Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Counoise together and co-ferment them (on their skins) in a single stainless steel fermenter. After 36 hours, we draw about 800 gallons of juice off the blend, and ferment it dry away from the skins. These lots are then supplemented with saignées (bleedings) from other Mourvèdre, Grenache, Counoise, and Cinsaut lots in the cellar.

The grapes for Dianthus were grown on our Regenerative Organic Certified™ and biodynamic estate vineyard.

The 2022 vintage was our third year of drought, but because the rain that we received came early, the vines showed good health though with cluster counts down by about 15%. Two frost events, one in April and one in May, reduced yields by a further 15%, and hit our whites especially hard. A cool first half of the summer was followed by our hottest-ever August and September, producing an early start and an even earlier finish to harvest. The vintage's extremely low yields produced concentrated flavors, noteworthy texture, and intense fruit.