2021 Chenin Blanc The Haven

My tasting this year with Ted Lemon opened with a stunning set of 2022 Pinots that immediately made clear what was possible in this vintage. The 2022s are deep, layered and wonderfully vibrant, with fewer of the extremes that marked some of the 2021s. I was blown away by the purity of the fruit in these wines. I tasted all the 2022 Pinots from barrel, prior to any racking, about a month prior to bottling, always a great time to taste the new vintage as the wines are in such an expressive state. Readers will want to pay special attention to the Richardson Ranch Pinot, a new bottling from a young site in Annapolis that is quite promising. Most of the 2022 Pinots saw some stem inclusion, 20-33% in most cases (the Thieriot saw none), although whole cluster influence is not especially strong, at least at this stage in the wines’ evolution.

The 2022 Chardonnays come across as a bit light in body, but those wines have been racked to tank and are, therefore, harder to assess at this stage.

“I am pretty sure 2022 saw the coldest, driest spring since 1999,” Lemon explained. “We had tiny, bonsai-like vines because there was not enough nutrient uptake. We did have good rains between April 11 and 23, though. Flowering was uneven, with a lot of shot berries. Summer was mostly cool. At The Haven we only had two days above 90 until September 1. For us, for where we were, the heat was too late and too brief to affect things. Generally, we had more water, and canopies were healthier, whereas, in 2021, we simply ran out of water in many sites. Vineyards that were used to water really struggled in 2021.”

Speaking of the 2021s, I also had a chance to revisit the entire range from bottle. The Pinots are just as exciting as they were from barrel, while the Chardonnays confirm the strength and consistency of the year.

"You will rarely hear me say this, but in 2021 we felt the fruit needed more time on the vine for the tannins to be fully ripe, so we picked at higher sugars than normal," Ted Lemon explained during a comprehensive tasting of the 2021s and 2020s. "We expected lower yields considering we were in the third year of a drought cycle, but yields turned out to be pretty typical." Harvest started in Anderson Valley, then continued on the Sonoma Coast a week later. In the cellar, Lemon gave the 2021s a bit more time in tank than in most years. As always, most Pinots have some whole cluster influence, but stem inclusion is a consideration made for each wine individually rather than a top-down philosophical choice.

The 2021 Pinots are gorgeous wines, some of the best I have tasted here. There is a purity to the wines that is notable. The 2021s are sometimes a bit richer texturally than the norm here, but it is a style that works so well. In 2020, on the other hand, the wines are a bit lighter. Readers should note Littorai did not bottle any single-vineyard Sonoma Pinots in 2020. For the Chardonnays, 2021 is shaping up to be a brilliant vintage. The young 2021s show tremendous promise. Readers will find a richer, more giving style in the 2020 Chardonnays, which are quite appealing. I tasted all of the wines in this report on a visit in January 2023. At the time, the 2021s were all in tank, some having been racked only recently, as described in the notes, while the 2020s were in bottle. In these two very different years, Ted Lemon and Littorai again show they are at the top of their game.