Do we have any indications for how the '20 vintage stacks up?
Morgan talks about it a bit on a recent episode of the The Wine Makers podcast. I won’t summarize, as I do not want to misrepresent, but it left me encouraged.
Curious which wines are left from the 2018 release?
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Was wondering the same thing! A cab maybe??
Either it’s a surprise or a typo. But I’m sure the podcast and MTP’s post here listing them all will be along any minute, right? Right?
He also mentioned 2018 in that podcast I referenced above, so not likely a typo.
Could it be Montecillo cab? I dont recall if a 2018 was released yet…
insta today said the podcast is dropping next week. I feel like previous podcasts have given more lead time to listen to before the release? especially if this is a 3 hour podcast like some of the other release ones have been thats a big ask to get through it all in a day!
Block your calendar for Monday to listen to it?
Please do not neglect Bedrock’s excellent YouTube videos!
The 2020 vintage is covered in FOUR different videos. The crew hits the road to survey the vineyards during the lead-up to harvest.
Bedrock 2020 Harvest Diary
Part I: Feb 16, 2021- “Old Hill Ranch, Field Blending Explained”
Part II: Feb 16, 2021 - “South Trip, Part 1
Under the Mountain Vyd, Wirz, Enz”
Part III: April 7, 2021 - “Teldeschi Ranch and the 2020 Fires”
Part IV: July 14, 2021 - “South Trip, Part 2: Bien Nacido and White Hawk”
Bedrock Wine Company website:
https://bedrockwineco.com/
You don’t have to get through it in a day. You have a few days to decide on your allocation.
So, I’m on Bedrock’s waiting list and I have to wait for everyone on the actual mailing list to buy/decline their allocations before they release it to people like me. I’m mostly interested in one particular 2020 Zin. In your experience, how likely is it that I’ll get it (4 or hopefully a six pack) under the circumstances?
Which Zin?
Esola Vineyard
That’s a good choice.
Thanks. Any idea how likely I am to get it?
2019 Esola was still available when the e-mail went out to the waiting list a year ago, fwiw.
One of my favorites, also.
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As requested, here are the tasting notes for the release wines and the podcast should go up Monday at the latest- as usual, this is not the final final version so please excuse any typos or grammatical issues. I am still in the midst of writing the newsletter, which, unsurprisingly is about wildfires and everything we have done to assure that we have full confidence in any wine we end of releasing from 2020. I have heard a lot of doom and gloom (and for later picked varieties or from late-picking wineries there might be some reason for it) but the reality of the situation, based on the immense amount of testing we have done using the labs at AWRI (the gold standard for testing located in Australia), is more complex and generally a bit rosier than people have made it out to be. We are extremely pleased with the wines. Cheers! -Morgan
2020 Old Vine Zinfandel, California
We often feel the geographic diversity of our vineyards rationalizes all the extra driving, and the travails of 2020 underscored this with a big ol’ Sharpie. Though we unfortunately lost a few lots due to smoke exposure, we were able to lean into the strong vintage at Esola, Schmiedt Road, Evangelho, Old Hill, Bedrock, Nervo and others to make a classic rendition of Old Vine Zin. The largest single piece comes from the old vines at Bedrock, followed by the perfumed goodness of Esola, the softer but fresh Schmiedt and the peppery, dark-fruited Nervo Ranch. As usual, almost all of the wine consists of declassified barrels from vineyard designated wines so offers serious bang for the buck. 85% Zinfandel with the balance a blend of Carignan, Mataro, Grenache and Alicante Bouschet along with esoteric creatures like Aubun, Abouriou and many more.
2020 Bedrock Heritage Wine, Sonoma Valley
Where is all started, the fountainhead of Bedrock Wine Co., the exemplum of our farming practices, the aition of our agriculture, the vineyard we call home. It was the 132nd year of existence for these grapevines, and they put out a smaller-than-normal crop of densely fruited, thick-skinned grapes that resulted in a classic Bedrock Heritage wine. As is common with Bedrock, this wine has structure to match its dark red fruits, spice and orange-tinged perfume. Composed of Zinfandel, Carignan, Mataro and the other 27+ varieties interplanted on the ranch, the wine was aged in a combination of larger format puncheons, demi-muids and 228-liter barrels of French and Austrian oak.
2020 Evangelho Heritage Wine, Contra Costa County
Over the course of thousands of years, granitic sand was deposited on the edge of the Sacramento River Delta in an area that stretches from the eastern edge of Antioch to the far side of Oakley. Over 130 years ago, people started planting grapevines, almonds, apricots and other fruit in these deep, well-drained sands. In 1936 Manuel Evangelho purchased some of these grapevines, which he farmed his entire life before passing it to his son Frank. Frank farmed the vineyard with care and a rough-hewn tenderness until passing the torch to us in 2017. He passed away far too soon, but I know he would be proud of the way the vineyard looks, the wines coming from it and its growing reputation. That the 2018 was recently on the pairing menu at the Michelin 3-star Le Bernardin in New York may have floored him, or he might have also smiled and said, “it’s about time.” (Manuel and Frank were the two most recent from a long line of Azorean fisherman, so Evangelho being served at one of the greatest fish restaurants in the world seems poetically just.) In 2020, Evangelho cropped at the lowest levels in over twenty years, and the resulting wine is dense, deft and full of energy. The natural freshness imparted by the afternoon winds and sandy soils drives through the wine, knitting the juiciness of the Zinfandel with the savory Mataro and bright Carignan. A classic Evangelho.
2020 Old Hill Ranch Heritage Wine, Sonoma Valley
One of the wines of the vintage… but I feel like I say that about Old Hill every, single, damn, vintage. Truly one of the greatest old vineyards in the world farmed by one of the most thoughtful, kind humans on the globe makes for pretty miraculous stuff year in and year out. A field blend of Zinfandel, Grenache and over 30 other varieties, the 2020 shows some of the same exuberant fruit we saw in 2019 and marries it with the noble structure, alluring perfume and potential longevity of the 2018. Though the vineyard is less than a mile from Bedrock, it always produces distinctly different wines—each great in its own way. My son JP (Joel Peterson) was born in 2020, and I can tell you that I will be squirrelling a fair amount of this away for future celebrations.
2020 Monte Rosso Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley/Moon Mountain District
In 2020 we were thrilled to be offered an additional small amount of fruit from an equally old (1880s-planted) block of fruit at this venerable ranch. In contrast to Block 32, which faces west, Block 25 is at higher elevation and faces north – something very rare at Monte Rosso. The blend of the two is a wine that has even more perfume and racy mountain fruit than previous iterations, showing all the pepper, blood orange and raspberry typical of the site. Composed primarily of Zinfandel, there is a small amount of interplanted Alicante Bouschet, Grand Noir and a single, beautiful Tempranillo vine. As always, a favorite of the vintage from one of the grand dames of Zinfandel sites in the world.
2020 Esola Vineyard Zinfandel, Amador County
From Denise Esola’s Zinfandel planted at 1600’ elevation in the center of the Shenandoah Valley appellation of Amador County. Always one of the most alluringly perfumed and exotic Zinfandels we make, the 2020 is particularly distinct even by this vineyard’s rather lofty standards. Planted on granite soils, the vineyard produces wines of beguilingly light color, crunchy red fruits and stately structure that shimmer with nervous energy and tension. Aged primarily in 600-gallon foudre, this is Old World meets Gold Country.
2020 Schmiedt Road Zinfandel, Lodi
One of the most forward and immediately delicious of the 2020 wines, Schmiedt Road is from vines planted in the 1910s on Tokay Fine Sandy Loam soils just north of Victor in East Lodi. A blend of our Katushas’ Vineyard with fruit from Kirschenmann across the street, the wine is almost entirely Zinfandel with a dollop of interplanted Carignan, Mission and Flame Tokay. In 2020 the vines averaged about 2 tons per acre, which resulted in a wine with lovely depth but also freshness and vivid fruit. Though Lodi tends to be known for heavyweight wines, we find the cool breezes of the nearby Mokelumne River, the sandy soils, diligent farming and picking at sane sugar levels makes for a wine of delicious freshness and elegance.
2019 Gibson Ranch Heritage Wine, McDowell Valley
By far one of the most flamboyant wines of the 2019 vintage, the Gibson Ranch Heritage Wine is one of the stars of the year for those who like dramatic and larger-scale wines. A rare field-blend from the mountains of Mendocino, this is composed of a unique combination of 1880s-planted Grenache, Trousseau Noir, Syrah, Petite Sirah and Peloursin. The result is a wine that features the dark and brooding Syrah and Petite Sirah with the ebullient Trousseau and strawberry deliciousness of Grenache. This will provide a lot of lusty pleasure.
2019 Enz Heritage Wine, Cienega Valley
Our second and likely final iteration of Enz Heritage Wine. Surrounded by the golden-walled canyons of Cienega Valley, this old vineyard features vines dating to the 1890s planted on their own roots in sandy soils of granite and limestone. Composed of Zinfandel, Mataro and Cab Pfeffer along with a few vines of the only old Malbec I have seen in California, this is a dense but bright wine with suave tannins and a beam of electricity running through it thanks to the calcareous soils. Here, the lovely fruit of Zinfandel is made more aromatically intriguing by the feral Mataro and peppery Pfeffer.
2020 Staves of Waidhofen Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma Valley
We started making this wine to highlight the incredible Stockinger barrels made in Waidhofen, Austria. Composed of Sauvignon Blanc from Uboldi, Judge and Bedrock Vineyard, all lots were fermented in lightly toasted Stockinger barrels. The subtlety of aromatics and gentle enrichening of the wine show off what we consider to be the Rolls-Royce of white barrels. This has become one of our most in-demand white wines, showcasing the exoticness of Sauvignon Blanc from great Sonoma Valley sites.
2020 Wirz Riesling, Cienega Valley
From the 1963 plantings of Riesling at Pat Wirz’s beautiful ranch tucked into the western folds of the Cienega Valley, this 2020 Riesling is stony, mineral stuff featuring the savory saltiness, Kaffir lime and white florals of Riesling that we adore so much from this site. The vines, dry farmed and own-rooted in the signature decomposed granite and limestone of the area, give a uniquely Californian iteration of the variety— likely the reason why great wines from historic wineries such as Almaden and Bonny Doon have been sourced from this site for decades.
2018 Montecillo Cabernet T5, Moon Mountain District
Every once in a while, we come across something so distinct in the cellar that we feel like we need to bottle it on its own— even if in very small quantity like this wine. We are fortunate enough to be allocated a couple of the wonderful T5 barrels from one of the world’s greatest coopers, Taransaud. These T5 barrels are crafted from specially selected wood that are then air-dried for a whopping five years prior to being assembled by the Master Cooper who oversees the entire operation. (Unsurprisingly, they may be the most expensive barrels in the world, clocking in at nearly double the price of a normal Taransaud barrel). The barrels are aromatic and distinct, and when assembling the 2018 Montecillo Cabernet blend we thought the wine was distinct and interesting enough to merit bottling on its own. Two barrels made.
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Thanks for the notes Morgan.