We are pleased to share with you our seasonal newsletters.
Summer 2024
Summer in the Vineyards
Policy Estate Vineyard in Yountville: The fragrance of the vibrant lavender field fills the air next to the Estate Vineyard.
The summer is a busy and vibrant time of the year at our Estate Vineyards. The warm temperatures, often reaching the high 80’s to low 90’s with mornings still being cool, and longer daylight hours provide optimal conditions for vines to flourish. Our vineyards are in full bloom with green leafy canopies that provide essential shade and protection for the evolving fruit. Clusters of grapes are beginning to grow and develop. Picturesque vineyard views are seen across the Napa Valley. The next major milestone in the vineyard is veraison—the critical stage when grapes change color and start to ripen.
While harvest is still a couple months away, preparations are in full swing. Highly skilled vineyard workers are tending to the vines, closely monitoring water, temperature regulation, and canopy management with leaf thinning and shoot positioning to ensure adequate sunlight and air circulation.
Overall, the summer months are a hive of activity. The Pulido~Walker team is meticulously monitoring the vineyard and growing conditions, setting the stage for a successful harvest of the highest quality fruit for our single vineyard designate wines!
After bud break and flowering in the spring, small grape clusters formed – the grapes start off as small, hard, green berries that gradually increase in size as they accumulate water and nutrients. The clusters are set in Policy Estate Vineyard.Photo June 29, 2024
SAVE THE DATE Tuesday, August 20th, 2024
2022 Pulido~Walker Melanson Vineyard and Policy Estate Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Release—Very Limited Quantities—First Come, First Served!
Inspired by the notion of rarity based on disciplined weighing and measuring of choices, Pulido~Walker delivers wine with distinct personality, reflective of its place of origin from our diverse Estate vineyard sites.
Melanson Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
One thing that was rare valley-wide in this vintage was good color saturation, but the 2022 Pulido~Walker Melanson Cabernet Sauvignon showed rich color density from the outset.
As we’ve come to expect from this wine, it hews more black-fruited, with some savoriness and a pronounced crushed rock minerality that make it both recognizably Pritchard Hill and consistent with past vintages of this wine.
Because yield from this vineyard was tiny, we fermented both clones in tank together. Although not layered with the commanding tannins of the previous vintage, this wine showed promising natural structure, so cooperage was mainly focused on foregrounding and framing that aspect.
We don’t often get the chance to savor the Pulido~Walker Melanson Cabernet Sauvignon upon release, as this site tends to produce wines that demand patience. We encourage you to enjoy the 2022 vintage now as a preview of the bottles aging in your cellar.
Only 93 cases of our single vineyard designate 100% Cabernet Sauvignon were crafted from the Melanson Estate Vineyards.
Policy Estate Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2022 Policy Estate wine presents all of the recognizable traits of the vineyard—fruit forward, balanced red and black fruits punctuated by savory notes, pleasingly proportionate—with slightly less intensity and tannin. It’s a charming, accessible wine that gained an appealing density in barrel.
We recommend holding some of the earlier releases from this vineyard, and celebrating the many successes of this vintage from Policy Estate while anticipating the ways future vintages will continue to impress.
Pulido~Walker Policy Estate Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was crafted entirely from Clone 7 as it has been for the past several vintages. A standout, this fruit consistently yields the darkest and densest wine of all the lots from this site.
The 2022 vintage yielded very limited production with only 149 cases crafted from the Policy Estate Vineyards.
2022 Vintage Overview
From Winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown
The 2022 Napa Valley growing season was a study in contrasts. An atmospheric river dumped more than four inches of rain in a 24-hour period in October of 2021, capping a two-year dry spell and setting up the vines with a good amount of ground moisture as they woke from winter dormancy. The rains petered out early in the spring of 2022, however, making for an especially small yield in the Melanson Vineyard, where the steep grade and stony soil tend to retain less moisture.
The summer months were relatively uneventful, despite being on the warmer side. We saw better vine development than in the two previous seasons, with a full canopy that would stand the fruit in good stead when the thermometer spiked in September. With the Labor Day heat event, what had been a sedate growing season became a critical test of our abilities.
As temperatures across the valley rose above 110°F and stayed there for several days, we were grateful for the elevation of the Melanson Vineyard, as well as some afternoon shading, good canopy development, and overall vine maturity—all important factors in how well the fruit fared under such stressful conditions. We harvested earlier than usual, on September 11, and in a testament to the excellence of this site, every barrel of the small crop made the final cut.
Farming in the Policy Vineyard is exemplary, and that was key to withstanding several days of temperatures above 110°F. The soils here are deep, with good capacity for holding moisture, and the vines have a larger root base, so they remained well irrigated. Once again Clone 7 was the star of the vintage, coming through seemingly unperturbed. All the fruit made the final bottling.
Annual Visit to a winemaking region – Australia –Margaret’s River and Adelaide (Barossa Valley)
Almost every summer, Donna and Mark visit a different wine region in the world. With their Quality, Quality, Quality focus, they are passionate about learning from their fellow vintners in the Napa Valley as well as other parts of the globe. This year they visited Margaret River and Barossa Valley in Australia engaging with viticulturist, winemakers and proprietors. In Barossa Valley, they spent time with Marco Cirillo, known for his grenache and shiraz wines. The 150 year old Cirillo grenache vines are considered to be the oldest in the world.
Caring for Our Community
In June, Pulido~Walker hosted a welcome dinner to kick off Collective Napa Valley Auction Weekend. Nearly $5 million was raised from generous donors at the barrel auction and live auction to support Youth Mental Health in Napa Valley. Donna currently serves on the Napa Valley Vintners Board of Directors and Chairs the Grant Review Committee. Save-the-date for JUNE 7-8, 2025 for Auction Weekend!
In August, Pulido~Walker will be sharing our wines at Harvest STOMP to support Napa Valley Grapegrowers and Farmworker Foundation. Mark is a member of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Board of Directors and co-chair of the Oakville Capital Campaign to build a center for viticultural excellence, sustainability and farmworker education.
Come Visit Us
For those of you who are planning a visit to the Napa Valley, please know that we are eager to host you for the Pulido~Walker Experience at Mending Wall Winery. You’ll enjoy a highly curated, personalized tasting of our exceptional single vineyard designate wines and have an opportunity to learn more about why and how we “Pursue the Possible” – from patiently selecting remarkable vineyard sites to establishing all Estate Grown single vineyard wines.
All of our wines are produced at Mending Wall, a winery we built in partnership with winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown and Frank Dotzler, founder of Outpost. If you or your family and friends would like to arrange for your own Pulido~Walker Experience, please call 707-226-1900 or email [email protected] to make a reservation.
We remain grateful for and humbled by your long-term support and interest. As we carefully nurture each new vintage to maturity, there is one overriding goal at Pulido~Walker: through a tenacious commitment to quality, craft exceptional estate-grown wines that capture the distinctive terroir of each carefully selected vineyard site.
Thank you again for being part of our journey as we continue to “Pursue the Possible” every day of every season.