Benchmark Brut 2022

The 2022 vintage arrived from a very challenging 2021 winter with an arctic outflow that lasted for almost 2 weeks. Fortunately, all of our vineyards escaped the extreme cold unscathed. The rest of the 2022 winter was seasonal with the occasional dip in temperature past -8°C. Cool early spring temperatures led to a bud burst that was 10 – 14 days later than average and a slow start to the growing season. The cool weather and above average rainfall persisted through the entire spring. By the end of June, the weather had turned around and the typical dry, hot summer weather arrived and persisted until mid-August. A couple of typical Okanagan heatwaves came our way in July. Mid-August saw two weeks of unruly summer storms during which our vineyard on Upper Bench Road suffered a 15% crop loss due to hail damage. September was beautiful with +30°C temperatures for the first two weeks and clear skies throughout. For the last two weeks of September and the entire month of October the weather was beautiful with +25°C every day making these two months perfect for ripening grapes.