Wine of the Day: Loew Vineyards 2022 Barbera Nouveau
November 16, 2022
Lenn Thompson
Press Fraction
I’m planning to begin my cellar-by-cellar tasting of the 2022 vintage shortly after Thanksgiving and will continue through the winter — but today I want to tell you about my first in-bottle taste of the 2022 vintage: Loew Vineyards 2022 Barbera Nouveau ($35*).
Yes, $35. It’s not an affordable, everyday type of wine. Winemaker Rachel Lipman knows that. Last year’s vintage of the same wine was $25.
Why the difference? “It was incredibly labor intensive, and fruit was really pricey this year. We did it all by hand—sorting and destemming,” she told me.
They sorted and destemmed about 30% of the fruit by hand over four days because, while Rachel has a crusher-destemmer in the winery, she didn’t want to crush any of this fruit so she could make the wine using carbonic maceration. She hopes to get a standalone destemmer in the next couple of years.
To conitnue reading Lenn’s thoughts about this Loew Vineyards release, check out the rest of the article here.
