For some reason I still have a magnum of the 2013. Now I’m just going to hang onto it for a while and see what happens. You know…for science.
Nice! How’s the color holding up? Would love to see it progress versus its Tempier inspiration
She’s definitley getting a little darker with an ‘orange-ish’ tint, but it should be fun to open in a few years.
Maybe the Bedrock guys can chime in on whether they’ve checked in on these recently…very cool!
im hoping we’ll get the typical breakdown of the upcoming release in here too!
Really looking forward to picking up a few outlying bottles. I too really enjoyed the conversation between Antonio Galloni and Morgan. I keep forgetting that Morgan is an MW…his intelligence, passion, and historical perspective are IMO unrivaled in the business. So much to learn from him.
We should be, Morgan is still writing up the TNs.
Do we know what time the notification of this is going out on Tuesday?
The Vinous video on YouTube with Morgan was good. He always drops little things that help you understand his wines better. I like that.
He said 9 or 10 when I had e-mailed. I assume that’s pacific time.
little bump for tasting notes day!
Hey Everyone,
Here are the wines for the release tomorrow. We are still working out pricing but new wines and the fun little things like Shake Ridge Barbera and Under the Mountain Carignan will be in the typical vein of Bedrock pricing. The Weill Exposition series wines are obviously a little harder to price and we have been looking at wine-searcher and other outlets to get a sense of what market value is.
Library Release Wines:
2011 Weill Exposition Series 1,2 and 3
2012 Weill Exposition Series 1,2 and 3
2013 Weill Exposition Series 1,2 and 3
2012 Cuvee Caritas White Wine (Monte Rosso Semillon based)
I am really happy to be releasing the last few cases of this wine that we have been hoarding in the back of the warehouse for nearly seven years now. It is drinking beautifully, and the figgy, dense and savory Semillon character is coming out in spades. This isn’t quite as developed as one of the Kalin releases of Semillon (a high-water mark for aged Semillon in California in our book) that I love so much but one is starting to see a kinship develop. Just a reminder, as the last vintage we released of this was the 2016, this comes from the oldest Semillon I know of in America planted at Monte Rosso along with some Sauvignon Blanc from Kick Ranch in what is now the Fountaingrove AVA.
2013 Kamen Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
We had the privilege of making this wine for two years and purposefully held a small amount back for a library release, knowing it would likely age beautifully. This is classic Moon Mountain Cabernet from one of the most impeccably farmed vineyards I have seen.
Previously Unreleased Cellar Selections
2014 Puccini Vineyard Zinfandel
One of our last vintages on its own from this 1 acre jewel placed deep in the folds of the western edge of Sonoma Valley as yields have been so reduced in recent years (this vineyard had fire burn through it in 2017) and a wine we have been loath to release as so little was made. The vines here were planted in 1906 and put out small amounts of elegant, spice-driven fruit. Following open-top fermentation in a small fermenter this was aged in neutral oak prior to bottling in Fall of 2015.
2015 Under the Mountain Vineyard Carignane
This comes from our first year working with this lovely site located in the toes of the Santa Cruz Mountains outside of Morgan Hill. Over the last few years the Gregory family has put an enormous amount of sweat and love into rehabilitating this vineyard from what was previously a pretty sorry state. Though the Zinfandel in 2015 was only good enough to make Old Vine, in 2015 we were so taken with this vibrant and dense expression of Carignan that we wanted to bottle some of it up on its own. The only time this wine has been shown to the public was when I had the good fortune to accompany Kelli White and Matt Naumann (Newfound Wines) on a trip to Chile last year for the first annual seminar on Carignan where I think it acquitted itself quite well (though my memory is fogged by all the Pisco we drank).
2017 Shake Ridge Barbera
This was our first vintage working with a few rows of Barbera from Ann Kraemer’s magical Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador County. I have always loved Barbera for its forthright beauty and fruit profile, and it tends to do very well in Amador County as the warm daytime temperatures tends to ameliorate the rambunctious and biting acidity the variety is so naturally blessed with. Since it was our first year, we simply destemmed the fruit into a 1 ton fermenter, let it ferment to dryness and pressed it to a couple neutral large puncheons— the overall hope being just to get a read on the fruit in its most basic form. Well, turns out this ain’t no basic, ahem, Barbera. The team loved the wine so much that we bottled up a barrel as much for personal consumption as anything else.
New Release Wines:
Bedrock 2018 Papera Ranch Heritage Wine
Papera Ranch, a fixture on the royal court of the Piner-Olivet area of the Russian River Valley, always seems to make wines that balance the intense blue fruit the area is so well known for with an additional layer of tensions and energy created by the large amount of Carignan and other mixed varieties found in our unique little block. I always love to compare this wine to those of Carlisle Vineyard, located just a few blocks away, as the wines are so different despite their nearness in locale. Whereas Carlisle tends to be more Marilyn or Chippendale dancer- bodacious and sultry—Papera is more Katherine Hepburn or Laurence Olivier—gorgeous and talented but perhaps more likely to read something in iambic pentameter.
Bedrock 2018 Ode to Lucien Red Wine
Ode to Lucien is our love-letter to the reds of Bandol—a wine born of the unique California soils and climes that traces its consanguinity back to northern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Only made in years where we feel Mataro is particularly good, this wine is based around the dense and expressive fruit from Evangelho Vineyard’s Block 6 and 7, some of which was fermented with a larger percentage of whole cluster than normal. This core element was blended into a 600 -gallon neutral foudre along with a small amount of Grenache from Gibson Ranch and Cinsault from Bechthold Vineyard for aromatic expressiveness and a trace of textural softening. This wine is a pup and will need a good decanting if opened early in its life as it is a bit wild and savage (not kill-your-husband-and-feed-him-to-a-tiger savage, just a little undomesticated).
Bedrock 2019 Judge Sauvignon Blanc
From the stone-strewn hillsides on the far end of Bennett Valley (what we just call “way o’er there” from our part of Sonoma Valley), Judge Sauvignon Blanc is always some of the most distinct and expressive fruit that enters the winery each year. Its very cool locale means it typically comes in quite late in harvest and maintains penetrating acidity despite the natural weight and exotic aromatics that comes from the musque clone, low yields and stony soils. Fermented in a mixture of cigare and Austrian Stockinger barrels, this wine stylistically leans more towards Bordeaux Blanc than the many reductively produced examples of the variety out there.
Bedrock 2018 Drummond’s Cuvee Petite Sirah
Drummond’s Cuvee, named for J.H. Drummond, who introduced Petite Sirah to California in the early 1880s at his Kenwood nursery, is our love letter to this chameleon-like variety (well, maybe a chameleon that can only turn various shades of dark). The 2018 comes entirely from the single old-vine Petite Sirah block at Teldeschi Ranch on the Dry Creek Bench. Here, the 100+ year old Pets is field blended with small amounts of Cinsault, Peloursin, Carignan and Vaccarese, all of whom contribute some elegance and perfume to the variety’s natural extensity and propensity towards density of dimensity (I have been at home too long….). This is delicious Petite Sirah and actually a bit more civil than one might expect from the variety.
Cellar Staples:
2019 Ode to Lulu Rose
2018 Old Vine Zinfandel
2018 California Syrah
2018 Bedrock Heritage Wine
2018 Evangelho Heritage Wine
2018 Pagani Ranch Heritage Wine
Thanks!
the bigger challenge here is apparently going to be choosing the wines I shouldn’t buy.
Boy, I really want to buy a few of each. Its going to be painful if I passing on this release. Too much uncertainty in the household and tough to justify another case in the cellar right now. :’(
Do we have a time this is going live yet, or is that part of the fun?
Currently 9-10am PDT as Brian mentioned above.
have all of these been released in prior releases as well besides 2019 Ode to Lulu?
I’m new here and I’ve not heard of Bedrock before now, but can see there’s a lot of excitement about the winery. I’d like to sign up for the mailing list but I’m worried that it might be out of my price range. What do these wines run? Is there a minimum or maximum order?