The 2022 vintage for Liberty Lake Wine Cellars represents another step up in quality for our winery. An amazing growing season in Washington State coincided with select improvements and trials in the cellar and vineyard that paid dividends with our most critically acclaimed vintage to date. This cycle of releases, including whites and our new sparkling offerings, garnered twelve 90+ scores from Wine Enthusiast and every red wine has already earned a Gold or Double Gold medal from regional competitions. This is an exciting set of releases and we can’t wait for you to try them!

One change with the 2022 vintage you will immediately see on our labels. Starting in 2022 a majority of our sourcing was certified under the SUSTAINABLE WA program. SUSTAINABLE WA is a rigorous, science-based program that ensures responsible practices that protect the environment, supports vineyard workers, and strengthens the long-term success of the wine industry. What does that really mean for you? Know that your wine is made with smarter water use, minimum pesticides and herbicides, fertilizing that keeps the soil healthy for the long term, and is harvested with labor that is compensated fairly and kept in safe conditions. All of these things work together to keep our vineyard sources viable in the face of any climate and economic shocks to come.

The other changes to some of our wines you won’t see at all! The 2022 vintage was the first in which we used bioacidification as a tool in the cellar. This process uses a strain of non-typical yeast (lachancea thermotolerans) that works side by side with typical wine making yeast, but instead of eating sugar and producing alcohol the non-typical yeast produces acid as a byproduct. This has the effect of naturally increasing the acidity while lowering the final alcohol level of the finished wine. It is still true that we do not make must adjustments (adding water and then artificial acid to overripe grapes), but the added natural acidity allows us to use even less sulfites than we usually do (remember: no pumps!), increases aging ability, freshens up the fruit, and lengthens the finish. The 2022 vintage saw trials of bioacidification with some of our higher altitude blocks on Red Mountain, namely Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, and Syrah. The results were a top-10 all-time score for a Washington Tempranillo from Wine Enthusiast, a “Hidden Gem” designation for the Touriga Nacional, and 92 pts for our Reserve Syrah. We also used the process on our 2023 Reserve Gewurztraminer that will be released this year, and this wine garnered its first Double Gold medal at the 2025 Pacific NW Wine Competition. Exciting stuff!

The 2022 vintage also saw a hefty infusion of French oak come into the winemaking program. You’ll especially notice this in our Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Cabernet Franc, Somm’s Select, and Zinfandel offerings from this vintage. These barrel trials were successful in elevating the quality and elegance of the finished wines and we hope that you like the results as much as we do. Barrel trials are one of our favorite things to do, but it takes at least three years to find out the results! Patience is rewarded in this case.

We also say hello to a new wine with the 2022 vintage and good bye to another. During our visit to Italy in the spring of 2022 we were inspired by the wines and winemaking we saw and tasted there. With that fresh in our minds, we created a new reserve blend that is sure to be an instant classic named Path of the Gods. This wine is Super-Tuscan style with 50% Sangiovese as the backbone, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot to complete the blend. The 2022 Path of the Gods uses Candy Mountain Sangiovese, but the 2023 is sourced entirely from Red Mountain (already bottled and delicious!). Finally, the 2022 Red Heaven Zinfandel will be the last offering of the varietal as the vines were removed to plant more Touriga Nacional for us. Picked on the early side, 6 full weeks before we picked the 2020 vintage, it presents itself more as an Italian Primitivo (see above) than a typical California-style jammy Zin. It was designated a “Hidden Gem” by Wine Enthusiast and we think it is a good representation of what Washington Zinfandel should be. Stock up before it is gone forever!