Wednesday Wines - Episode 240 – Nicolas-Jay's Remarkable 2022s

It was a great pleasure to Zoom-call from Berry Bros & Rudd’s HQ in St. James’s Street with Jean-Nicolas Méo and Jay Boberg to taste their newly released 2022s.

It bears repetition, so here I go again, but please do refer to this winery’s superb website because there is so much more information than I could ever hope to note down in a speedy tasting. You can read my notes on Nicolas-Jay’s 2018s here and the 2019s here. In 2020, disaster struck with fires 50 kilometres away in Salem, affecting the vines with smoke taint, so no wines were made. Finally, you can read about the remarkable 2021s here.

It is rare to listen to brutal honesty and clear reflection when talking to founders of important, pioneering wineries. Such honesty truly exposes the sometimes-powerless human in the story of wine creation. So often, the elements take complete control of proceedings, and you find yourself a silent observer. It is worth tracking back in my links above to discover how challenging conditions can be when growing grapes in the Willamette Valley, and Jean-Nicolas and Jay are disarmingly open about the stresses and strains involved during the growing seasons. In 2022, the most-used word describing the vintage conditions was ‘afraid’.

Frost hit Chardonnay badly and reduced the yields considerably, ending up around 50% down on the average. Pinot Noir was touched but thankfully came in around 80% of the long-term average.

The weather was dreary for much of the year – cold, damp and very late. In fact, they worried if the bunches would ever reach true ripeness with harvest taking place a couple of weeks later than hoped for in mid-October. While the ‘stage was set for difficulties’, it turned out rather well, with the shortest period between flowering and harvest since this estate was founded a decade ago. Jay explained that it was almost as if the whole summer was shunted back a month or so! Ripening happened under bright skies, and while the worry was constant that the skies might open, they never did! 22C-25C during the day and then cold at night – just perfect – these peculiar conditions are evident in these unique wines. While they were nervous throughout 2022 and stressed when it looked like ripeness might never be achieved, looking back, they acknowledged that one should never lose hope. These are wines that refuse to follow fashions. They are drawn from their remarkable vineyards and ushered into the bottle with little fanfare, just careful winemaking underpinned by decades of international experience. Once again, this set of bottles redefines what’s possible in Oregon!

Whites

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Affinités Chardonnay, Willamette Valley £68.00, www.bbr.com

Drawn from Bishop Creek (Yamhill-Carlton AVA), Spirit Hill (Eola-Amity) and Von Oehsen (Eola-Amity), this is an effortlessly classy Chardonnay with intricate layering of flavours from these three stunning sites. Ripe and controlled over beautiful pith and skin-derived acidity and bite, the balance is stunning, and the fruit notes teasing and invigorating with moments of balletic poise. Touches of generosity draw you in, and freshness and tension warn you away. While this is a delicious wine now, it would benefit from a further 12 months to shapeshift into completeness. 18.5/20

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Bishop Creek Chardonnay, Yamhill-Carlton, Willamette Valley £103.00, www.bbr.com

Last year’s 2021 stopped me in my tracks, and I was willing this wine on, perhaps channelling some of the nervousness that Jean-Nicolas and Jay were subjected to back in 2022. I need not have worried because Bishop Creek is such a stellar site; it always delivers its best. Phenomenal breeding and tension make this a linear, densely packed and unusually closed wine. This makes it a much more serious proposition, and it does not want to be distracted from its journey ahead. Staggeringly focussed, gloriously ripe and muscular, and with the sleekest flanks, while the hints of exoticism are shut down in seconds, with the latent power seeking to marshal any exuberance, calling a halt to any erstwhile celebrations, we only need one quality to usher this wine to greatness – patience. This is a truly spectacular (and, dare I say it, Grand Cru) creation! 19+/20

Reds

2022 Nicolas-Jay, L’Ensemble Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley £85.00, www.bbr.com

No fewer than nine plots of vines were used in this ‘assembly’ of flavours, and Jean-Nicolas and Jay decided to add fruit from Shea this year. They used Shea in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and they are keen to see if this fruit allows even more expression in the wine as it matures. The idea is that there is a possibility of retaining the trademark degree of ‘L’Ensemble’ complexity while hopefully increasing the volume of the blend. We shall see. On first inspection, this is a super-smooth and thoroughly delicious Pinot. Jay reckons it might close down and then blossom again later, and I feel this might well happen. I drank a 2021 vintage recently, and it looks quite firm in contrast to this open-armed 2022, but anything can happen! In 2022, there was less Momtazi used in this wine because of disease issues, so the chances are it will be a fruitier rendition. Spicy, ripe, open, and come-hither with delicate hints of cake spices over deeply rewarding summer pudding and hedgerow notes, this is an example of the art of blending – to make an infinitely more intricate wine than the stand-alone parts. This has been consummately achieved. 18.5/20

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Own-Rooted Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley £105.00, www.bbr.com

This wine is a blend from vines that were planted on their own rootstocks, and in 2022, it is made of three different vineyards: Hyland (McMinnville), planted in 1971, Bishop Creek (Yamhill-Carlton) and Nysa (Dundee Hills). There are always florals and fresh herb tones here, and with Hyland’s beating heart, the fruit notes are refined, fragile and sonorous. This couture style is marked by tension and length, and nothing is forced, too pushy or concentrated. This 2022 is a little tighter than usual, with a slender, shyer and more reluctant chassis, and I like this finely-judged stance. Own-Rooted is always an outlier, with a touch of individuality and quirkiness that draws the drinker to the glass. It is a welcome change of pace in this portfolio and another wine that needs a few years to blossom. 18.5+/20

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Momtazi Pinot Noir, McMinnville, Willamette Valley £113.00, www.bbr.com

2022 Momtazi was a tiny crop, and with only 144 cases available, this is far and away the most sought-after cuvée in 2022! It is unusually open and expressive with ravishing fruit and spice notes over a mineral undertone, brittle crispness, and mouth-watering acidity. Momtazi always shows a touch of irreverence – and I love wines with attitude. If you love mineral-soaked Pinot Noir (akin to a great Nebbiolo), you must embrace this wild card and bathe in its joyous unpredictability. I must admit I did not see this coming. I am completely captivated by 2022 Momtazi. 19+/20

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Nysa Pinot Noir, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley £113.00, www.bbr.com

This is a typical Dundee Hills wine with forward, sweet-edged, ripe, red fruit notes and epic bitterness countering this exuberance. Unusually, it has a mightily impressive engine behind the delicate perfume. While teasing and plush, the fruit hides tannins that wait patiently for the moment to pounce. Always pretty and enchanting but with a hint of menace and crunch, this is a rhythmic wine with an unmistakable sense of the great wines from the ‘Vosne-side’ of Nuits-Saint-Georges, as opposed to the more earth-driven southerly sites. A quieter wine than the others, some might miss the cache of intent burred in the red folds, but the full peacock’s tail of flavours will become apparent given 3-5 years (at a guess). 19+/20

2022 Nicolas-Jay, Bishop Creek Pinot Noir, Yamhill-Carlton, Willamette Valley £113.00, www.bbr.com

From the home vineyard, own-rooted in blocks 1, 3 and 4, which were planted in 1987 and 1988, this is such a serious wine I needed to sit in my chair for half an hour after I logged off the video call with the chaps to pull this wine apart carefully and forensically study its mechanics. Closed, powerful and commanding, this is one of the finest Pinot experiences of the year, yet nothing is obvious, overt or easy. This wine epitomises quiet confidence, and there is a monastic silence about how it delivers its messages. Imposingly deep, purple-ink-hued and breathtakingly classy wine, this is yet another wine that demands patience and commitment to allow it enough time to age gracefully – this might be a decade, making it one of the most long-lived of all Nicolas-Jay wines. This is the master of this family of Pinots, the slowest to evolve, the all-seeing eye, and the cornerstone of this estate. It is spectacular. 19.5+/20

Wednesday Wines – Episode 240 – Nicolas-Jay’s Remarkable 2022s