Tasting notes on Northern California’s 2020 vintage in 2022

It’s been a rough harvest and we’ve still a long way to go. I’ve been hearing a lot of people say that they won’t be buying 2020 wines from Napa/Sonoma because of the fires.

I’m wondering how people will react when tasting notes start coming out in 2021 and 2022 for these 2020 wines. Since the vast majority of wineries will not sell tainted wines, and those that do will almost always do so with a disclaimer, the notes we see coming out will largely be for those wines that managed to come through this totally or relatively unscathed. At that point, what will your approach be to picking up wines from retailers, mailing lists, or negociants?

A lot of people are understandably nervous, but we’ve a long way to go before any of these wines see a bottle. What might change between now and then that would shift your concerns in one direction or the other?

Let me clean and disinfect my crystal ball. Or maybe I’ll just wait until the wines are bottled and released, since there will be tasting notes by then.

I intend to include a clean ETS taint report with every datasheet. If I cannot do that, I will not release the wine.

Paul

It won’t surprise me that many wines are perfectly fine, and the ones that are, I won’t have any problem buying them.

Then again, I’m not buying trophy bottles costing several hundred each and all, so I don’t know the decision tree in those.

Yeah, that’s what I’m getting at - will people feel comfortable going on others’ tasting notes despite their concerns about the vintage?

I trust the people I buy from. Can’t recall the last time I relied on a tasting note to purchase a California wine. Oh wait…yes I can. It was 2014.

The OP really comes close here to being spam.

You could probably sum it up in 2 words: Ashes and Diamonds.

I listened to Roy Piper’s video about this issue a few days ago. Watch and listen to what Roy Piper has to say. Roy Piper

dh

Can you explain how? I posted this in a genuine effort to understand people’s thinking and concerns regarding smoke taint when wines from this vintage are ultimately released, and how those will be shaped by different external factors.

Because you are ITB, in California, and are shilling for 2020 wines before anyone has any idea how good they are.

Howard leads the cynicism lobby

I think a lot of wineries will not release wine for the 20 vintage. The weather was spotty and then the smoke. The good producers won’t release subpar wine though.

Just my 2 cents, but I don’t see any shilling in the OP.

This isn’t shilling? “Since the vast majority of wineries will not sell tainted wines, and those that do will almost always do so with a disclaimer, the notes we see coming out will largely be for those wines that managed to come through this totally or relatively unscathed.” It certainly isn’t a “genuine effort to understand people’s thinking and concerns regarding smoke taint.”

I honestly don’t see the shilling there. Does he have a history or something? (I only started reading these boards recently.)

Ben is not a shill, please calm down, guys. Yes, his tag line says ITB, but ITB means a lot of things, and in Ben’s case has absolutely nothing to do with sales. Nada.

I understand that it could come across that way. Hell, I’m a cynic myself, but that is honestly not what I’m doing. I don’t work in sales or marketing, I don’t make wine, I have no stake in what or how much 2020 wine people buy. I’m also not saying that people should or shouldn’t be buying 2020 wines from this area. But I know that it will be controversial, and I think it’s an interesting topic and would like to know people’s thoughts on the matter.

I know we don’t know each other, but this really was intended as a good faith attempt to understand my fellow wine lovers’ thinking. I know there are people on this board who are interested in talking about how we decide what and where to buy, and I’m one of them.

That’s not shilling, it’s common sense. Tainted wines taste awful and you’d be foolish to expose your wines to a professional reviewer if they were tainted.

Snobby rudeness. Didn’t see anything wrong with your post either.

Many of us will probably wait on professional reviews to make decisions on wine purchases in 2020. Yes, we want to support our favorite wineries or maintain our place on lists, etc, but also have to balance price, quality, budget.