3+ years really help the blends, but it’s hard to generalize when each one has such a different composition. I’ve opened one each of my '13 Nervo and Papera and they are very much in contrast with each other at this point. I found the Papera to be extremely primary and it failed to open up much over several hours (needs tons of time) and the Nervo to be much more ready to go on release, the quick note I wrote for it said “smoky, dark, and delicious, keep ordering this!”
LOL, I thought the '13 Nervo wasn’t close and the '13 Papera was more drinkable. Funny how those things happen.
Speaking in very general terms, I like tasting the zins and field blends about 3-6 months after release, they can be quite showy and in some cases absolutely exceptional. After that they start closing down, hard in most cases (although the Syrahs almost always come off as closed to my tastes).
Recently, I opened a 2012 Kirschenmann and it was quite surly, same with the 2013 Old Vine Zin that was my red wine QPR of the year in 2014. Both of these wines were wide open near release. I have high hopes they’ll emerge from their respective shells in beautiful fashion one day.
Michael, it could very well be a product of when we tried them. Looks like I Pobega’d the Nervo and had the Papera more recently. I also compared the Papera with the Carlisle version which was much more open on that night. Moral of the story is that they could all use a lot more time before we start messing with them.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Doing some “research” for the upcoming release.
Limerick Lane!! Hope it shows well
I am diggin it. This will be a buy.
Thanks! Wishlisting that one will be a no-brainer for me!
-Dennis
As promised, here are the wines notes with the usual caveat that there might be some typos and editing issues. However, should give y’all the general idea.
You know that old trees just grow stronger, and old rivers grow wilder every day. –John Prine
2015 Ode to Lulu Rosé: Our eighth incarnation of Lulu. It started as pure Mataro/Mourvedre and over time has included more Grenache and Carignan over the years based on the best available fruit. In 2015 we are returning to Mataro as the core component of the blend, thanks to the return of Pagani Ranch fruit (which was terribly frosted in 2014) and the inclusion of the 100+ year old, own-rooted fruit at Live Oak Vineyard in Contra Costa County. At just over 60% of the blend,the Mataro plays up some of the savory, feral fruit character of the wine, while the Gibson Ranch Grenache and Cemetery Carignan offer gorgeous aromatics of wild strawberry, gnawed watermelon rind, and perhaps even a trace of Mendocino’s number one cash crop. We are delighted with this wine, hopefully a wine that will lift everyone’s spirits and senses.
2015 Sonoma Valley Sauvignon Blanc: The real name of this wine should be “that time Chuy Ordaz saved our tuchases.” As most people know, 2015 was a light harvest for many varieties and Sauvignon Blanc, at least at Judge Vineyard, was not spared the fruit razor of the Big Mama in the Sky. This meant we faced the rather troublesome reality of having to choose between releasing a Sauvignon Blanc at the expense of having none to blend with Semillon for Cuvee Karatas, or vice versa. Not happy with that reality, I started digging into the rolodex but came up with nada, bubkus, nothing. About to give up, I finally got ahold of a weary Chuy Ordaz. As a quick aside (and I wish these releases had footnotes sometimes), for those who don’t know Chuy, he one of those guys that by sheer dint of work ethic, graciousness and smarts has worked his way from being a field hand to the vineyard manager for Kenwood Winery under the Lee brothers to running his successful Palo Alto Vineyard Management. His watchful eyes oversee the farming at Montecillo, Vendemmia, Fredericks, Jack London Vineyard and many more. He is a badass. Chris and I met Chuy on a hot Sunday afternoon and he brought us to two lovely sites. Frye Road, which makes the generous core of this wine is planted on gravel and clay soils in the heart of Kenwood. Ubaldi, whose graceful product accounts for perfume and grace in this wine, is something special, about as good an SB site as I have ever seen. Where Lawndale Road takes a hard S before steeply gaining elevation into the nooks of Sonoma Mountain, Ubaldi stretches across a rare piece of Goldridge Loam soil that is strewn with rocks like a vinous baseboard at the southern perimeter of the Valley. Owner Bob Ubaldi has the turtle-leather hands, steady eyes and quiet smile befitting a man who has worked construction and fought fires for most of his life. Happily, Bob was willing to find some fruit for us and in two hours with Chuy we went from well, screwed, to flush. Ubaldi ended up being some of the best Sauvignon Blanc we have ever brought into the winery, is the backbone for this wine, and will become a permanent addition to this wine.
2015 “Staves of Waidhofen” Sauvignon Blanc: Yeah, quite the name huh? I wanted to call it “Stockie” but Chris protested the name due to years of painful childhood clothes shopping experiences. I mean, I would not mind if we called the wine “Precocious” or “Pretenaturally Talented” despite MY childhood memories, but whatever. The real story behind the wine goes back to our trips to France and Italy. There, in the cellars of Conterno, Tempier, Canarelli, Graillot and many more we tasted wines from vessels made by an Austrian cooper called Stockinger. The wines were invariably our favorite in every cellar, showing the textural kiss that we love from oak treatment with little, if any, of the overt aromatic hit of the oak. After three years of being told that Stockinger would not export to the United States, we began to scheme. First, one of our friends in France or Italy would order the barrels and foudres and then we would arrange shipment to the New World. Thankfully, , another good friend, one lesser known sommelier cum winemaker named Rajat Parr, somehow talked the Stockinger family into exporting a small number of barrels into the US of A. Needless to say, our barrel budget for the year got blown up and we could not be happier about it. The only new oak on this wine comes from barrels fabricated in Waidhofen (for John Irving fans one of the settings for Hotel New Hampshire) by the masters at Stockinger. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
2015 Abrente Albarino: The 2014 version of this wine is on the richer side of the spectrum by our Abrente Albarino standards. The alcohol is essentially the same as previous releases but there is a greater fruit richness of fruit to be found here. In most years I think of the Abrente as the perfect oyster and light seafood wine while this one will extend to richer seafood concoctions (roast monkfish with black truffles anyone? (the dangers of writing with an appetite)), chicken dishes and any vegetarian fare. The grapes were sourced from two vineyards in the Carneros—one planted on clay, the other on limestone—and was fermented in stainless steel tank. This one will be great for summer nights on the porch.
2014 Papera Ranch Heritage Wine: One of my absolute favorite wines from 2014, Papera Ranch Heritage combines the richness of Russian River Valley with the electric brightness and spice brought by the Carignan and other interplanted varieties. As planted, the vineyard is just about evenly split between Zinfandel and Carignan along with 10% or so of Valdigue, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and others. However, in order to pick everything together the Carignan is thinned to one-cluster per shoot to bring it into the ripening window with the Zinfandel which means the resulting wine is probably only about 30% Carignan or so. This is one of the most consistent vineyards we work with and always ranks towards the top in terms of my personal preference. (Not that we have favorites! 
)
2014 Nervo Ranch Heritage Wine: Nervo Ranch is located just south of the town of Geyserville on incredibly steep slopes of decomposed shale (technically Josephine Loam). The oldest vines on the ranch, which comprise this bottling, were planted in 1896. The vineyard is a true field blend with two blocks dominated by Zinfandel and another dominated by Negrette, which was once known as Pinot St. George in California. The wine also includes a bevy of other varieties such as Abouriou, Alicante Bouschet, Carignan, Cinsault, Petite Sirah, Valdigue, Trousseau Noir, Trousseau Gris, Cardinal, Burger, Colombard, and Sauvignon Blanc. This is dark, peppery, brooding stuff—perhaps the most “claret” like of our Heritage bottlings and deserves good decanting if opening on the earlier side.
2014 Limerick Lane Zinfandel: Our small block, planted in 1910, at this incredible site produced a wine in 2014 with great elegance, breed and line. Almost always one of the most fragrant Zinfandel sites we work with, this wine possesses aromatics akin to some of the best wines of Abbatucci in Corsica (an esoteric reference but if you know the wines you know what I am talking about). Red fruits, myrh and California garrigue dominate on the distinctive nose. This wine really shines with a few hours in the decanter. One of my favorites of the year, this will appeal to those who prefer finesse over massiveness.
2014 Weill Mixed Blacks: In 2014 we took over the farming at Weill Vineyard which allowed us to dig a bit more deeply into the viticulture of the site. Tightly spaced on a steep site in Southern Sonoma Valley we did a multiple thinning passes to ensure that fruit ripened more uniformly and also restricted water use a bit more. The result is a wine that possesses the dark color and richness typical of this recreated field blend but also feels a bit more complete than the 2013 and 2012 iterations.
2013 Alder Springs Syrah: Alder Springs Vineyard is a modern miracle of vineyard farming and a testament to the passion and genius of its owner, Stu Bewley. The vineyard possesses a mind-numbing combination of varieties, clones and rootstocks all planted in blocks that climb the sandstone slopes like an undulating step ladder. Our Syrah comes from a combination of Manzanita, Emerald Pool and Spirit Rock. The three sites and multiple clones and rootstock combinations are picked and co-fermented together along with a dollop of Viognier. In 2013 we chose to include 50% whole-clusters in the fermentation for added spice and aromatic levity. This is, if I say so myself, gorgeous Syrah—spicy, animal, peppery with the trademark kiss of spearmint of Alder Springs. This will last a long long time and deserves some time in the cellar.
2013 Bedrock Vineyard ‘Ancient Vine’ Syrah: The ancient-vine Syrah comes from vines scattered throughout Bedrock Vineyard’s old vines. Syrah has a tendency to not set particularly well on these vines so it is only every few years that there is enough to be able to make a barrel or two—happily 2013 was one of those years! Along with the scattered Syrah at Gibson Ranch (which is a field blend of Syrah, Grenache, Trousseau Noir, Petite Sirah, Peloursin and others), this is the oldest vine bottling of Syrah I know of in the U.S. Offered in magnum only as we hope people will give this wine some time in their cellar for a few years—it it is dark delicious stuff.
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Sorry, Morgan, you lost me at nymphets, brassieres, and spicy pepper panties. Really. Pretty offensive.
I had mentally ordered two cases before even reading about the third of the wines to be offered…
Prepped for this release by opening a Riesling tonight. It’s funny that the zin got me hooked on bedrock but I’ve been looking forward to the whites more than reds. Both the sav Blancs and the Albarino sound too goo to pass up plus the Nervo Ranch. Really looking forward to this release.
Morgan,
When you mention Nervo as a claret like wine, what do you mean? I’ve taken that to mean a lighter style, but that doesn’t sync up with your other descriptors.
Cheers!
Yeah. I can see how you might take exception to that sentence. My apologies, not my best writing moment. I have edited the release accordingly. I appreciate the feedback- to be honest I didn’t feel quite right about the notes when I posted them, like I had posted prematurely, and clearly that gut-feeling was right. Thanks!
I appreciate the increased play in the CoCo area: Evangelho, now Live Oak. This makes me smile!
No problem, Morgan, I accept your apology. You are a gentleman.
Morgan, do you have plans to expand into more magnums going forward?
Morgan, is the Staves of Waidhofen Sauv Blanc the exact same juice as the Sonoma Valley just with different barrel treatment?
+1