A Bevy of Bedrocks in Milwaukee (Unicorn Sightings)

So a few weeks back I got word that we were going to be having our national sales summit in none other than Mil-U-Wa-Kay (que Wane’s World references here), so naturally my first thought was, I’ve got to see if my man Alex Stewart is around to pop some bottles! Alex was just getting back from a huge conference himself but since we’ve never had the chance to meet in person and we were long overdue to drink some wine together, he agreed to suck it up and connect pretty much straight from the airport.


Being that Alex is my Bedrock Brother from another mother, the theme for the night pretty much went without saying. I squeezed a couple special bottles into my suitcase and Alex, being the kinda guys he is (take that however you want , brought 3. 5 killer bottles of Bedrock for the 2 of us? Yeah…that sounds about right.


Alex suggested Odd Duck restaurant and it did not disappoint. Crazy good food, friendly staff…and apparantley one of the few places in town that allows corkage. Win/Win. What’s even better, is that literally every single bottle showed incredibly well. This was definitely an instance of where the company/environment elevated the wine to another level…but damn…this was easily the strongest lineup of Bedrock wines I’ll probbaly ever see again in a single sitting. My notes are limited as we were having too much fun shooting the shit/enjoying the wines…but Alex is WAY better at tasting notes than me anyway so you can go off of his comments. Another example of this board creating friendships, and bringing like-minded people together in the pursuit of great wine and good times. Cheers!


2009 cuvee caritas

Note the C as opposed to the K (pre-lawsuit). What a treat, as I cant imagine there’s too many of these gems around anymore. I had a 2012 Karatas not long ago and swore I would wait a long time before opening another. This 09, on the other hand, was in an absolutely perfect spot. The Semillon really shines here, with a beautiful foral nose, and on the palate, a bit of honey and some fig to round things out. No rush at all, but damn is this tasty now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Most Bedrock (and Carlisle) whites show soooo much better with some age. Perfect way to kick things off - thanks Alex!


2008 Bedrock #2 (Merlot/Cab Blend)

My wine. Solid…but in this company…easily my least favorite. No rush on this, but it opened up quickly, and had a nice soft/plushness to it (probably thanks to the Merlot), but the cab adds some structure. Violets and plums. Tannins are present but not harsh. Alex said chalky, which is spot on. Really good wine, but simply outshined by the rest of the lineup.


2011 Puccini Vineyard Zinfandel

Good God. This smells like Smurfs running on rainbows! Absolutely explosive on the nose. Wow! So much going on it’s hard to nail down. Spicy…but not the typical zinfandel baking spice. Dark purple and black fruits on the palate. Delicious and incredibly complex. After 45 minutes the tannins kick in and the wine shuts down some, hinting at years of enjoyment still to come. I was fortunate to have this at the Bedrock vineyard last year with Brian Tuite, Andrew Johnstone, and Chris Cotrell (thanks again Brian for bringing this) and it was WOTD then, and proved yet again to be my favorite of the night amongst VERY stiff competition. Alex’s wine. Another super limited bottle.


2007 Bedrock Heirloom

Mmmm. This is awesome. In an ideal place right now, with the acidity playing perfectly with the fruit. High toned citrus with purple fruits. Drinking so well, but theres still some tannin left on the finish hinting at 5+ years more of development. Later in the night this opened up even further with an awesome and very distinct note of menthol. Alex said fresh pack of Newports, which being a Newport smoker back in high school (#BadChoices), I completely agreed with. A very close 2nd place for WOTN, and an absolutle home run considering this was Morgan’s first vintage. My bottle. 1 left that I’ll hold for some time, as these are pretty much impossible to find.



2012 Weil #3

Last bottle of the night, so super limited notes. All I can say is that this was an absolutely delicious. I was shocked at how well it was drinking, but it will obviously hold/improve for many years to come. Purple fruits and just a slight bit of meat, but not to the point of being overwhelming (which is a very good thing for me). Would be nice to open another one of these with fresh eyes/palate, but very thankful I was able to try this as I have a couple in the cellar. Feel like Morgan nailed exactly what he was shooting for here. Alex’s bottle.

Sick line-up and even better notes, but my god, are you dudes ugly!

Sounds like a great night.

^ lmao

But too true - worst camera angle ever!

I’ll have some notes to follow-up on Rich’s excellent post…wines were just incredible, truly lucked out!

Ha ha ha! No arguments there!

Gotta give us a little credit though since we were both already a little worse for the wear from a long week of late nights. Had to suck it up and rally, but we came through just fine. #NeverGiveUp

It was pretty brutal man. We were going to try and take a couple decent pics at the end…but for some reason we completely forgot???

Heck of a line up. Well done gents!

Tom

Looks great but I am really hoping there were more than two of you drinking

The restaurant staff was very happy!

As Rich mentioned, even though I was arriving back in Milwaukee from a long week of CBC in Denver, the fact he was in town for that one evening and was free to hang & pop some corks was just too great of an opportunity to pass by on. So even after long a very long week of work/travel for both of us, we were able to completely rally around an evening of great food/company and popping some corks on 5 amazing bottles of Bedrock.

My brief wine impressions:

2009 Bedrock Wine Co. Cuvée Caritas - USA, California, Sonoma County (4/12/2019)
Honeysuckle, minerals galore, touch of oak, apple & citrus. Texturally reminiscent of a Meursault from PYCM, just perfectly balanced w/excellent acidity. Amazing with food, has years left.

We had the Caritas with some perfectly seared scallops, so redonk.

2008 Bedrock Wine Co. Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine #2 Bedrock Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/12/2019)
Plummy dark fruits, cherry fruits, mint, eucalyptus, astringent tannins. In the middle of transitioning into showing more of a tertiary profile, could use a few more years to settle in and should show beautifully. If drinking now, food definitely helps in taming the tannins.

I liked the Red Wine #2 more than Rich, imo it would have been better received if all the other wines hadn’t shown so well. That said, it was definitely in that “in between” stage between upfront fruit & more aged-Cab characteristics.

2011 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel Puccini Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/12/2019)
Explosive nose of cherries, pronounced spices (black pepper/clove/cinnamon bark), vanilla bean, epic mint/menthol. With air, tannins emerge and the fireworks become a bit more tamed. Regardless, an absolutely idiosyncratic Bedrock - amazingly elegant yet so utterly flavorful, would love to try again 5 years from now.

This wine. Total “wow” wine. We were both somewhat flabbergasted…to the point verbal communication took a backseat fro some time to guttural, unintelligible noises. I’ve never had a Bedrock quite like the 2011 Puccini. I truly hope to try it again. Count yourself lucky if you still have this.

2007 Bedrock Wine Co. The Bedrock Heirloom - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/12/2019)
Red fruits (raspberry/strawberry), anise, menthol, root vegetables. Smooth as silk, beautifully integrated and in the zone - just a lovely bottle of wine. GOTTA LOVE THE CAPSULE! Haha.

This was an outlier on the evening as it clearly showed the most integration from bottle age and provided immensely easy drinking w/deliciousness completely obvious from first sip. Beautiful aromatics. Such a pleasure to try this, my oldest Bedrock - thx again Rich!

2012 Bedrock Wine Co. Syrah Exposition Three Weill Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/12/2019)
Beguiling, chameleon-like nose…think violet, dark fruits, stone fruits, oak, forest floor, vegetal funk, etc. So very youthful w/serious structure yet scarily easy to drink. A truly great wine, hard to imagine how much greater it will become.

Man, could you pick up the Viognier on the nose! Such a great combo of dark fruits, stone fruits and herbaceous complexity. I’ve been fortunate to have had a number of the 2012 Expositions and honestly, THEY ALWAYS SHOW WELL. What a perfect end cap to an awesome evening! So amazing that all the wines were showing so well,

Last thing to mention, this was one of those occasions where you just knew everything was going to rock - I mean, Rich – we’ve been talking on the Bedrock thread for something like a few years now?? It was basically like meeting up with that old friend you hadn’t been in contact with for years and just immediately reconnecting on everything as though no time had passed - had an absolute blast!!

Like I said…Alex is WAY better at tasting notes than I am! Spot on as always, and so awesome to finally hang out in person my man! Huge thanks to Todd for creating this crazy place, as I’ve made many good friends here that I would not have otherwise.

Oh man, I have a 2012 Exposition #3 standing up for dinner this weekend. Mouth…watering…can’t…wait.

David, consider giving it a 2-3 hour decant if you can - that’s what we did last year in Nashville and it really benefited from the air (I believe it was Adam Landa’s wine of the night). I would have done the same with the bottle from last week but didn’t have enough time due to my travel schedule.

Amazing tasting notes!!

Thanks guys!

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Check that, it’s always better to be lucky.

I don’t think Morgan changed the Caritas due to a lawsuit. You’re thinking of the “Heirloom” thing. Caritas was changed so people would not confuse with Ceritas which was a brand before Morgan bottled the Caritas. Although Caritas was the name of his dog.

That ‘11 was special wasn’t it?

Great notes guys.

Ahhh! Yeah that sounds right actually - Good call Brian!

And yeah, it really was. Incredible wine all around…and the best CA wine I’ve had from 2011 by a LONG shot! So lucky to have had the pleasure to drink it twice thanks to you and now Alex!

Thx Drew!

Brian, thx much and too true - we got sooooooo lucky with the wines! And no doubt man, that 2011 is just special. Hopefully all of us Bedrockheads can convene sometime in the future for BedrockFest…

BedrockFest would be awesome! Sounds like a great night.

I have lots of great Bedrocks sleeping, all nine expositions, OV mags, Oakville farmhouse etc. They are some of the most anticpated wines i own