2022 Hiyu Wine Farm Tzum ‘Ashlar’ Columbia Gorge, USA

This is our second bottling from a site planted in the 1970s on a very steep hillside of basalt cobble in the East Hills of Hood River.

We released the first vintage of the wine from the original Riesling vines in 2020. That particular wine may end up being one of the best weve ever produced but is also incredibly wild, reductive and in need of additional aging. It is reminiscent of the Chenins of Richard Leroy. The site yields just around 1 ton per acre of fist sized clusters that explode with flavor. It is also an extraordinarily slow fermenter. The 2019 is still finishing its primary now and the 2021 and 2023 are on an equally slow pace. I am obsessed with the complexity that is possible with ferments of this length.

This bottling incorporates new vines of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Chardonnay, Pineu DAunis, Poulsard and Trousseau along with the Riesling. It was macerated on the skins for a week and then pressed into a single 1100 liter cask for aging.

The conditions in 2022 were extraordinary. The coolest growing season weve ever experienced finished with a warm and rainless October. This allowed us to pick everything extremely late, at full ripeness, creating seamless wines that retained a very fine tread of acidity. This wine is perhaps the best example of these qualities of the vintage. Its full ripe peaches, lavender and stone. The texture is lush with no sense of weight and then at the end everything comes together with a very aromatic thread of salt and lime.

This is will be very approachable young, in stark contrast to the first release from 2020, but I suspect it will surprise with how long it ages. Drink from 2026-2036+