First Impressions of 2023 Wines

The dry summer of vintage 2023 gave us ripe, concentrated grapes. There was never any question that these would be powerful, mouth-filling wines. With a vintage like this making big bruiser wines is easy. Folding balance and finesse into that power is the hard part.

In many cases fermentations have not quite finished. The drought resulted not only in higher than normal alcohols, but also low nutrient levels in the juice. This is challenging for the yeast. At this stage they are tired (they have to work overtime to ferment that last % of alcohol) and hungry (not enough yeast “food” in the fermenting wine).

We are however getting a feel for the wines. Counterintuitively the whites are harder to evaluate than the reds at this stage. They still need to lose their fizz (CO2) and fall clear (they remain cloudy and yeasty). But what we can tell is that they seem to be wearing their alcohol well and there is enough acidity to keep the wines fresh.

Tasting the reds makes us very nervous. Think of a baseball pitcher in the late innings of throwing a perfect game. Can all these wines really be this good? This is a very special vintage across the board. Ripe Merlot, dense concentrated Cabernet Franc, and long, silky, structured Cabernet Sauvignon. Tannins were easily extracted this year and we didn’t want to push the wines for fear of pulling out any harsh, drying astringency. The draining of fermenters will be complete this week and the wines will be safely in barrels. Malolactic fermentations are completing quickly, so we hope soon to be able to sulfur the wines soon and put them to bed for the winter. Then we can relax.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal/Field Notes: October 23, 2023