A cold vintage and a remarkable wine from Jonata
Winemaker Matt Dees overcomes the tricky 2022 growing season with the most impressive Todos yet
Matt Dees doesn’t want to be the smartest guy in the room.
While he can carry a conversation with the best of them - there’s almost not enough oxygen on the planet when he and I get on a call together - he’s intent on listening more than he talks. Because he’s got a growth mindset when it comes to all the facets involved in the winemaking process, the Jonata winemaker is surrounded by a team of experts.
Even though the wines made at Jonata in the Santa Ynez Valley’s Ballard Canyon AVA have been exceptions for years, Dees is still learning. The varietals in the vineyard have matured, the wines have become even more expressive and in a challenging vintage like 2022, Dees smooths things out like a hot iron flattening out any wrinkles.
“It was an interesting learning experience for us,” Dees said. “We made the best Jonata wines I’ve seen to date. Even though we had a cold vintage at Jonta, I was still kind of blown away. It made me realize that even with a really long hang time - we had rain events and had to wait for phenological ripeness - we can still do special things.”
“It was a big vintage,” Dees said. “But as I tasted through most of the barrels, there were no dogs. They were all pretty special, which was a blessing and curse during blending because it put so many objects in motion.”
But what came out of a cold vintage was truly remarkable. The challenges faced led Dees to joke that the staff had some “pretty serious conversations with Mother Nature.” Yet, it might be the most expressive, tense and memorable Todos that Dees has ever crafted.
After a moment Dees turned to baseball to best describe the 2022 grwing season, latching on to the adage that hitters can fail seven times out of 10 and have a pretty good shot at being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
