2022 LINEAGE Red Blend -750ml

Lineage | Vintage 2022 | Vintage Notes

Lineage Wine Company’s singular offering aspires to be one of the truly great Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines in the world. Lineage is a product of meticulously farmed fruit from the Livermore Valley’s finest vineyards and the vision of sixth-generation winemaker, Steven Mirassou.

Each vintage of Lineage begins with the evaluation of individual lots of wine after malo-lactic conversion is finished in early spring the year after harvesting. This process will take many months as each barrel in each lot is tasted blind several times before it is deemed of great-enough quality to be considered part of the final assemblage. Scores of mock blends later, the final blend is made, and re-barreled for about six months before bottling. The 2022 vintage – our sixteenth – comprises fewer than 125 cases. Typically, our appellation, from July – August, hovers around 88º on average. This temperature is ideal for the uniform ripening of fruit going through veraison during this window. Heat spikes around Labor Day are generally brief, but 2022 was one of the hottest on record. a heat dome sat over northern California, spiking temperatures to nearly 110^o every day for more than a week. Eventually, the heat dissipated, but it took almost two more weeks for the vineyards to begin photosynthesizing again.  

Cabernet Sauvignon (69%) once again plays the largest role in the final Lineage blend. This grape contributes red and dark fruit notes, which gain in complexity with time in the bottle, and the scaffolding of structure upon which the fruit of Merlot, and Cabernet Franc hangs. In this vintage, both the Home Ranch and Ghielmetti vineyards make up the Cabernet base; Home Ranch’s characteristic herbal organoleptics is at play again here, the bass notes of mint and bay adding to the complexity of the wine; Ghielmetti Clone 30 Cabernet adds its characteristic elegant blue and black fruit notes and its finesse in the mid-palate tension that lengthens this wine.  Cabernet Franc from the Ghielmetti Vineyard (16%) adds red fruit notes and accompanying acidity that lifts the entire wine while Merlot from the Zayante Vineyard (15%) in the Santa Cruz Mountains adds great palatal roundness and depth of flavor. 2022 Lineage resembles the round and ebullient 2012 release, displaying wonderful levels of voluptuousness and complexity while also showing the capacity for aging. this wine will require 5-10 years to begin to show its myriad complexities. With proper storage, 2022 Lineage will age for 15-20 years. Drink from 2030-2045. 

Harvest Dates: October 6 – 19, 2022

Cépage: 69% Cabernet Sauvignon; 16% Cabernet Franc; 15% Merlot. Alcohol 14.5%

Fermentation: All the components of the blend (Cabernet Sauvignon clones 7 & 30 from the Home Ranch and Ghielmetti respectively, Cabernet Franc from Ghielmetti, and Merlot from Zayante in the Santa Cruz Mountains) were fermented separately in 1.7-ton open-topped fermenters. Malo-lactic conversion was induced in barrel.

Aging: 100% of the barrels included in this blend were French oak, 50% new (Le Grand, Taransaud, and François Frères.) Total aging time was 22 months.

Time in Barrel: 22 months ×€ Bottling Date: January 8, 2025 ×€ Release Date: October 2, 2025

Bottles Produced: 1,476 bottles (123 cases)