TOO HOT TO HANDLE

Even Napa's top producers struggled in the scorching 2022 vintage for Cabernet

- BY JAMES MOLESWORTH

"It was brutal." "It was certainly traumatic.” “The most painful experience of my professional life." This is how some California winemakers responded on being asked to describe the 2022 vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon, a category dominated by Napa Valley producers. As these quotes attest, the vintage was difficult, marked by a singular weather event that was extreme in its own right, while also coming at the worst possible time.

Since my previous report on California Cabernet (Nov. 15, 2024), I have reviewed more than 500 Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines in blind tastings at our Napa office, more than 350 of them from the 2022 vintage that now dominates the marketplace. The results show it was a very challenging year to make great wine.

The singular event that altered the vintage was a heat wave—but not just any heat wave. It was a heat dome, extreme for its high temperatures as well as its duration, and it arrived during Labor Day weekend, just when Napa's Cabernet grapes were nearly ready to be picked.

These conditions have had a severe impact on the quality of the vintage, with no classic-rated 2022s emerging from my tastings so far. Of the more than 325 '22 Cabernets in this report, only 30% earn outstanding ratings of 90 points or higher on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale, a far cry from the previous vintage in which nearly 80% of the more than 750 Cabernets rated 90-plus. (There's a chance the numbers for 2022 could change, since I'll continue to taste the vintage as late releases become available for review.)