2022 Pinot Noir La Côte

Sashi Moorman and Rajat Parr turned out a stellar set of Pinots at Domaine de la Côte. I tasted the 2022s twice, once at the winery and then again a few weeks later in New York. The wines showed better in my home office, which is not unusual. Sometimes, removing wines from their context serves to highlight quality, as the only thing left is the wines themselves. As always, the house style favors a very high percentage of whole clusters. In 2022, the dry, warm year balanced stem inclusion and the natural savoriness of this very cool site on the far western edge of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. “We tend to ripen on the early side, probably because our yields are so low,” Moorman elaborated. “We brought everything in before the severe heat, but where the heat was more evident was in the cellar. We use only ambient ferments, so fermentations were warmer than usual. As a result, the 2022s have a bit more extraction than our norm.” Beginning in 2022, the Pinots see more new oak than in the past. The goal of this decision is two-fold: firstly, to add structure in compensation for the recent exclusion of press lots, and secondly, to ensure a hygienic environment for the wines, as the domaine does not use SO2 in pre-fermentation or aging.