Caroline’s Through the 2021 and 2022 Seasons
Updated: 4 days ago
New growth in the vineyard.
In Caroline’s 2021, damson, black cherry and blackcurrant sit alongside dried thyme and sage. In the 2022, the emphasis turns towards red cherry, plum and rose, with a fresh herbal character. Open the two together and each reveals a different season in the same vineyard.
Caroline’s brings together the five Pinot Noir clones grown at Clos Ostler, namely 115, 667, 777, UCD6 and Abel. Its purpose is to reflect the season across that planting. Comparing consecutive vintages offers a particularly direct way to understand what this means.
2021, warmth, wind and concentration
The 2021 summer was warm and dry, with persistent westerly winds. Berries were small and concentrated. The five clones were picked separately as they reached maturity, with harvest taking place from 7 to 20 April. Caroline’s then spent fifteen months in French oak barriques, with new barrels accounting for twenty per cent.
The wine’s darker fruit gives a generous first impression, followed by clove, cedar and dried herbs. Fine, supple tannins hold the fruit together, while acidity keeps the finish defined. At 13.5% alcohol, it has the concentration of the season within a composed frame. Thyme and sage give another dimension to the plum and cherry as the wine opens.
2022, a different rhythm
La Niña brought a milder, wetter easterly influence in 2022. Spring began warmly, with even budburst, before cool and damp weather arrived during flowering. Crop weight and berry size were reduced. Summer remained mild, followed by dry, settled autumn conditions in which the fruit could complete its ripening.
Caroline’s 2022 has a more red-fruited, floral expression. Alongside cherry and plum, our tasting observations find rose, mint, sorrel and fig leaf. These green, fragrant details give the fruit freshness and complexity. The tannins are supple and chalky in feel, and bright acidity carries the wine into a lingering savoury finish.
The individual stages of the year are revealing. Describing 2022 simply as cool and wet would miss its warm beginning and favourable autumn. Those distinctions are part of why the estate keeps a vintage record of the whole season.
The harvest dates give that difference a precise scale. Caroline’s 2021 was picked between 7 and 20 April; the 2022 between 26 April and 5 May. Picking began almost three weeks later in 2022. Read alongside the account of a dry, settled autumn, those dates help explain why the end of the season deserves as much attention as the summer. Flowering, summer growth and the final weeks before picking each brought different conditions.
Grape development at Clos Ostler, photographed in 2025.
What the comparison tells us
Both wines retain savoury detail and a sense of movement through the palate. Their differences are found in the character of the fruit, the aromatic register and the feel of the tannin. The darker 2021 and the more floral 2022 offer distinct pleasures, while remaining recognisably Caroline’s.
Even the alcohol figures encourage a closer look. The 2021 is labelled 13.5%; the 2022, 14.2%. A season’s warmth cannot be inferred from that number alone. Neither can the wine’s freshness. The balance has to be considered in the glass, alongside acidity, fruit and texture.
A tasting for two vintages
Serve the wines side by side at around 16°C, using the same glass shape. Begin with their aromas, then follow how the fruit and tannin meet across the palate. Return to both over the course of the evening. The changing relationship between fruit, herbs and flowers is often more revealing than a single first impression.
Keep the vintage notes beside the glasses, but record your own first impressions before rereading them. The wine has also been developing since bottling. Any difference in texture may reflect bottle development as well as the fruit picked in each season.
For those keeping Caroline’s in the cellar, these differences become part of the pleasure of collecting it. Two bottles from consecutive seasons provide two starting points to follow as the wines mature.
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