Bow & Arrow Chenin Blanc Union School Vineyard 2023

Winemaker Scott Frank's commentary (which is always great): On Thursday morning I woke up to find the 2021 Union School Vineyard Chenin Blanc made Eric Asimov’s/New York Times best 12 wines of the year list. (The Most Memorable Wines of 2024 )The Chenin is the real spiritual center of the project and the most unlikely of all the wines. It was one of the grail varieties for me to make when I began Bow & Arrow in 2010. However, all the Chenin in the Willamette Valley had been torn out decades ago after it was determined to be “unviable” here. I spent years trying to find a grower willing to take a chance on it. In 2017 I finally found a grower in CA willing to let me come and take cuttings and Fedexed a Coleman cooler full of canes back to Dieter at Union School Vineyard. I still haven’t been able to bottle it as a varietal wine more than half the time because it’s so difficult to get ripe.  All that’s to say the wins are often few and far between in this wine game and it’s re