2022 William & Mary Wine Company Cabernet Sauvignon, Shifflett Ranch

All of the consternation and hand wringing about the 2022 harvest was felt in this one. I believe I used the word triage on multiple occasions. The day after the heat broke, I went up and started dropping fruit as the very top of the block was decimated by the sun (fortunately the lowest yields are also up there somewhat minimizing the pain). Then I split pick the block by exposure - southern side (shade) and northern side (sun). Visually speaking, the southern side looked unaffected while there was some dimpling and dehydration on the rest. Almost immediately, I knew I had the base for this wine in the southern side and the rest would make itself known over the following months in elevage. The final blend was 3 barrels of the southern side with one barrel of the north side. I kept the other two barrels of north side, so we might see an extended barrel aged version of this wine at a later date.

Rounder and fuller than most versions of this wine at this early stage, the future for this one is pretty clear and bright. There is a juicy shell around the midpalate that somewhat masks the tight, slightly backwards core. Painfully young, this is one to forget about for a while but if we are being honest, all the wines out of here take time and this one is no different.