Hello All!
Sorry for the delay, posting just under the wire for the release(Ha!).
Thanks for all the kind words and support of the wines WBers! Morgan and I couldn’t be more excited to get these wines out into the world!
Cheers!
Chris
2018 Under The Wire Release
“Walk with those seeking truth…Run from those who think they’ve found it.”
Dear Friends,
It feels somewhat surreal to present the fifth release of the Under The Wire wines. Time has flown by, as it does. When we released the first creation from Under The Wire (the 2011 Brosseau) in early 2014, the grapes for these wines hadn’t even been picked. That 2011 release was just a wisp of an idea, a single wine made by two friends excited by the opportunity to make sparkling wine together and in search of what seemed to be a nebulous question at the time: whether terroir can be captured in California through the lens of sparkling wine. After answering that question for ourselves in the following two years (which was an emphatic YES!), 2014 was a year of perfecting this idea via vineyard selection and winemaking technique.
From a personal perspective, those two years marked a seismic shift in our lives. I moved to California and started to become comfortable talking about my feelings and eating avocados. Morgan took Bedrock from a one-person show to a two-person show (me!) to a four-person circus. We built a winery, walked miles of vine rows, searched for truth in countless wines, and expanded Under The Wire to three wines and beyond, becoming more excited by the results.
2014 was perhaps the first year of living and working in California where I felt I had a more complete winemaking foundation under me and a better understanding of the true potential for Under The Wire. We refined the winemaking process, becoming more confident in the vineyards, picking decisions, making press cuts, aging the vin clair, disgorgement and dosage. We had built friendships that helped us along the way, from growers to the scientist-gone-mad Michael Cruse to the first consumers (you!). The challenges of sparkling wine from vineyard to bottle feel countless, but the 2014 vintage seemed less daunting as we began to focus on refining our idea more than convincing ourselves on the merits of the project as a whole. For us, moving into the 2014s felt a bit like moving from Help! to Rubber Soul or from mono to stereo.
Of the four wines in this release, two are built along more traditional champenoise lines, two are beautiful oddities, and all are uniquely Californian.
The former two are Alder Springs Chardonnay and Brosseau Chardonnay. Both wines come from the classic grape of blanc de blancs, but they grow in two equally isolated extremes, separated by 300 twisting miles and a six-hour drive. 2012 was our first experience making the same grape from two different places into sparkling wines, and once again in 2014, these two wines prove how different sparkling wines can be from equally well-farmed, sparse-yielding Californian vineyards planted in different climates and soils. We don’t have a preference, as they are both such unique expressions of site. We recommend pouring them side by side for your friends and family—if there are differing opinions at the table, it will at least be a much more enjoyable debate than diving into politics or bickering over whether Lebron is the G.O.A.T. (btw, Jordan didn’t lose many championships, neither did Bill Russell(Morgan)…btw, eight straight final appearances, in the modern era, regardless of the results, is one of the greatest acheivements in sports ever(Chris)).
The third and fourth wines of the release come from Grand Cru-level old vine vineyards and peer back at a different era in California wine: The Bedrock Old Vine Zinfandel and Oakville Farmhouse sparkling wines. As recently as the 1970s, both of these vineyards represented varieties that were more widely planted than Cabernet or Pinot Noir and had historically been made into bubbles. It is both their uniqueness and history that make these two wines special, as Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc and Colombard were all used for sparkling wine in California’s past—including being a main component of Arpad Haraszthy’s “Eclipse” as long ago as the 1860s. There are also no two vineyards that Morgan and I have walked, worked and laughed in more than these two over the past six years. This is critical, because as Clarence Darrow said, “If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.”
Thank you for your continued support of this project. We can’t wait for you to try the new offerings!
Cheers!
Chris and Morgan
Wines
2014 Brosseau Vineyard Sparkling Chardonnay - Chalone
Where Under The Wire all started. The 2014 continues to prove in bottle what a unique, delicious site Brosseau is for making Californian sparkling wine: dry-farmed, own-rooted Wente clone Chardonnay vines planted in 1980 at 1800’ elevation. The soils of limestone mixed with decomposed granite are unique and provide this wine’s signature texture. It’s the fourth year we have produced this wine, and this is the most “Brosseau” wine we have made to date while also being the most elegant. The wine still smells like the drive up to the vineyard, combining pit fruits with laurel bay, pink peppercorn and mountainous scrub but with more lift and elegance than in previous years. We love this vineyard and this wine.
2014 Alder Springs Vineyard Sparkling Chardonnay - Mendocino
From a vineyard conceived in the wild-west mind of Stu Bewley to a pretty bottle of bubbles, Alder Springs sits alone at the northern reaches of Mendocino. The nose reminds us of how close this vineyard is to the sea. Pretty fruit and density is framed by a slatey hint of foggy tide— reminding us a bit of Montée de Tonnerre Chablis. The palate is suave and dense. With this stuffing combined with its bright acidity, this wine should age gracefully for some time.
2014 Bedrock Vineyard Old Vine Sparkling Zinfandel - Sonoma Valley
“The best, in the opinion of Arpad Haraszthy, whose judgment in this matter is entitled to much weight, is Zinfandel.”
- Published March 1869 in The Alta California in reference to Arpad Haraszthy’s favorite grape for sparkling wine.
Friends, sparkling Zinfandel is not a “normal” wine for the modern world! However, we can say with confidence that in 2014 we really hit our stride, and I think knocked this one out of the park. It is simply the most delicious example we have made with the most classic sparkling wine soul. Pale copper and rose in color, this is light on its feet with the signature Bedrock Vineyard anise, fennel, blood orange and Campari notes; this has lots of verve and straight up scrumptiousness. It may come as a surprise to some, but Zinfandel has similar chemistries to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir when picked at sparkling wine sugar levels. We are very pleased to continue the legacy of Zinfandel being made into sparkling wine, keeping the spirit of California’s booming 19th Century sparkling wine business alive and well.
2014 Oakville Farmhouse Vineyard Sparkling Wine - Oakville, Napa
“It is amazing that this fascinating, old-field blend vineyard, planted in one of the most expansive areas for Cabernet Sauvignon, is still intact.” -Robert Parker
We generally say that we make single vineyard, single variety, single vintage sparkling wines. This wine qualifies for two out of three. Located below Promontory, next to Futo and just down the road from To Kalon, Oakville Farmhouse is a time-travel vineyard, a vineyard that can take you back to the days before Cabernet took over the Napa landscape. Planted in the 1930s, the vineyard is mostly composed of a mixed red field blend that we bottled under the Bedrock Wine Co. label. But at its southwestern edge grows a tiny ¼-acre parcel of mixed white varieties. The block consists of French Colombard, Chenin Blanc, Malvasia Bianca, Muscadelle, a couple Semillon vines and a few Chardonnay vines. This vintage is the only sparkling wine we have made from this tiny parcel of old mixed whites, as production has been too limited in subsequent years to even fill a barrel. All the whites were picked together and gently pressed into a single barrel. This wine went through about twenty different stages during elevage and tirage, which had all of us scratching our heads wondering what it would turn into. The final wine has finished with an elegance and precision I would have not predicted, with melon mixed with earthy, razor-like lemon pith combined with spice. It has wildness and regality at the same time.
Unfortunately, we have only 200 bottles of this wine, so it is wish-list only. Of course, with such limited quantity some of you will be disappointed. After the offer closes we will be offering six bottles up for auction to the highest six bidders whose wish was not granted. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to a charity of the winner’s choice.