Vintage 2022, Raw Reflection

As we toil away in vineyards looking to the future vintage it is a pleasure to revel in the joy of what we are selling in bottle currently. The 2022’s mark our first vintage making wine in Bonny Doon Vineyard’s old tank room. A place where many of Bonny Doon Vineyard’s 90’s and 2000’s wines were vinified. There is a lot of history in this building we call “home to Madson Wines”. Before wineries, it was a brussel sprout packaging facility as early as the 1940’s. Alas, skip forward to 2022 and we finally get to make wine inside with all the necessary equipment and temperature control. No more outdoor fermentations, no more driving forklifts off road, no more directing fedex through the redwood forrest to a tiny barn. The 2022 vintage was the last drought vintage. The winter was as dry, had little rainfall and abnormally warm termperatures. The vines sprung forth early with fresh bud-lings as early as March 10th in some sites. Such an early bud break gives more time for Spring frost to damage our crop and sure enough we had a state-wide frost that effected even our coastal vineyards but especially the vineyards at higher elevations. The frost naturally minimized our grape yield by 30-50% depending on the site. 2022 was an early havest for us with due to the early budbreak and the hot summer to follow. We began picking in the Santa Cruz Mountains August 15th (a month earlier than our average). Overall, the heat ripened the fruit well, maturing soft tannins and giving the wines plenty of delicious and giving fruit on the palate. The small yield made dense wines, packed full of flavor and freshness. The dryness of the previous winter increased the concentration. It is a joy to look back on these 2022 wines. Specifically the 2022 Toyon Vineyard Pinot Noir and the 2022 Red Tail Syrah stand out, showing better than previous years. To watch raw footage from the Madson harvest in 2022 click here.

Thanks for reading,

Cole