TN: 2016 Bedrock - Heritage Wine Evangelho Vineyard (USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa Couunty)

Is this a “typical” Bedrock wine? Is there such thing as a “typical Bedrock” wine?

2016 Bedrock Wine Co. Heritage Wine Evangelho Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County (8/15/2018)
– bottle opened and first glass poured approx. one hour before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over approx. 3 hours –

NOSE: red-fruited; “winey” — comes across as a hefty Italian carafe wine; little bit of spice (stems?); no funk/leather.

BODY: medium-light bodied.

TASTE: barely tannic; medium acidity; 14.1% alc.; red/purple berries; hints of “dark” earthiness and light mineral. This struck me as very boring. Anonymous. I was legitimately excited to try this, my first Bedrock, and was terribly disappointed. Paid $35, and for me it’s a bad QPR at that price. Gut impression score: 84 – 86.

Haven’t opened a 16 yet (probably will in the next few weeks), but honestly, some of the Heritage styles aren’t for everyone. Which is ok.

Brian, give the Bedrock Heritage Bedrock Vineyard a try before you write them off completely. It’s completely different from the Evangelho and is imho one of the most consistently profound wines that Morgan makes.

Also, fwiw I’ve been buying Bedrock for 8-9 years now and I’m as much a fanboy as anyone; that said, the Evangelho is probably my least favorite Heritage blend and I no longer purchase it.

(which really helps when you purchase 80-90% of everything else from Bedrock!)

High expectations can kill perfectly good wine. I was kinda bored at first sip, then came back to it later (after expectations were checked) came back to it and enjoyed it.

Very true, Rob. Ashley said she’d be “happy” to pay $25, so she wasn’t thrilled, either. My “happy” price was $15. This just seemed extremely straightforward/simple, and not very structured. I was expecting a more “serious” wine. I’m not going to give up on Bedrock after a single bottle, though.

Thanks, Alex, I’ll see if I can find the Bedrock Vnyd to try next.

I have found a few of the Bedrock wines to be backward (some might say simple/dumb stage) at such a young age. Some of em’ really fill out with a couple of years in the bottle. I’d be looking to drink slightly older vintages.

The Evangelho is not my cup of tea either. I really enjoy the Bedrock and Pagani Heritage wines though, but with several years of age on them. I buy a lot of the OV Zin too.

Tastes differ. Evangelho is one of my top three wines from Bedrock.

I also enjoy the Evangelho, but for my palate all of Morgan’s wines improve significantly with mid- term aging (5-8 years).

The last Bedrock Evangelho I had was the 2014 and it was really good.

+1

I strongly recommend that you don’t scratch the “Evangelho Vineyard” red off your list forever simply because of one bottle that didn’t show its best early in its lifetime.

My first (and only, so far) experience with Bedrock so far was the 2015 OVZ and everyone who i tasted it with (myself included) thought it was pretty great. granted, we had it with some pretty heavily spiced BBQ Short rib so could have been the “food wine” aspect, but i was impressed by how the complexity held up. did yall finish the bottle? Maybe come back to it today if you didn’t and see if it just needed some air time?

Lots of good advice here, I personally love the Evangelho. It is a very sandy site and you get a very elegant expression out of that kind of soil. My notes on the 2016 were from a month ago, it took an hour or two in the decanter and showed “Spiced red plums, orange rind, cacao dust, and sweet floral perfume.” That said if you are looking for “serious” than its probably not the best one for you.

I’ll put it plainly: it’s way too early to be opening this wine. Give it 2-5 years.

Totally agreed with everyone on aging – aside from a brief window of “showiness” a few months after release, the vast majority of Morgan’s wines just need 3-5 years. Even then, it’s somewhat vintage contingent as I’m already finding the charming 2014s to be more open than the very structured 2013s while the yummy 2012s are mostly in the zone.

I would say that this is true for more wines than most folks think. Patience is a challenging thing, and we tend to ‘write off’ some young wines as ‘boring’ when they simply need time . . .

Cheers.

There is also the non-zero possibility that the wine is just not the OP’s preferred style.

Not that it ever happens. But.

My all-time favorite zin from anywhere has been the Bedrock 2013 Monte Rosso and that was singing right out of the gate. Most all of the other Bedrock’s I’ve tasted needed time (even the OVZ’s but drink through those anyway).

Had this about 6 months ago and I agree, it’s really very good. But still quite young, plenty of rough edges that need time to smooth out.

IIRC Bedrock has (or will, shortly) lost access to these grapes so don’t wait if you want some.

This has been my experience 100% and I’ve never had the chance to try non-current release bedrock. I’ve only had the old vine zin and syrah too. I’m not a fan but I know I should probably try more before I write them off.