Like the previous two vintages, 2022 was severely impacted
by the absence of winter rains. This resulted in another very
small crop with miniaturized clusters--the ones growers hate
(who get paid on weight) and winemakers love (who can
make better wines). Since drought appears to be the "new
normal" in California, we worked in the offseason to procure
more acreage of this precious Old Vine Carignan from Rory
and Vince Bartolomei. We offered to pay them more for their
prized fruit in exchange for a bigger stake in the vineyard. The
net result: the Barto Bros. got a fair market price for their fruit,
and LIOCO brought home 18.9 tons of pristine, manicured
Rosé grapes. In doing so we reclaimed this wine as a single
vineyard expression--something we were unable to do the
past couple of years. The fruit came in on the mornings Sept
10th and 12th, with textbook chemistry. To manage color
uptake on these smaller clusters, we elected not to crush the
fruit before pressing it. This direct-to-press method reduced
our juice yield but gave us a pale salmon colored wine with a
depth of flavor we haven't seen in a few years.