They went over so many whites at the end that I think I missed some (and really that’s what I should get).
The new Beeson Zin sounds amazing. Hoping for a good allocation of that. Bedrock Heritage too. Might go for Esola white zin, hoping the one who said something like strawberry/lemon is more on point the one who kept insisting it’s watermelon.
(I wish they gave pH and TA and ABV numbers like Mike Officer does.)
My wish is for drinking windows, like Carlisle.
instagram is what you want here. between Bedrock’s official page, Morgans, and Chris’ (and Brennaes at Monte Rosso TBH), you can get a pretty close to daily dose of vineyard and/or winery pics. but also the fact that there is a lot of little technical jargon things thrown into the podcast that is part of the reason I really enjoy it. I realize that its still dumbed down for non ITB people, but it feels like they are acknowledging that if you take the time to listen to and follow a two hour podcast about the release, youre probably not just a beginner on a wine journey and they respect that you likely know a bit about biodynamics and geography of California. I like that they dont shy away from talking about water holding capacity, or releasing thrips into the vineyard, or the difference between how a wine was trained in 1910 vs 1940, etc.
Yep, great call on Insta!
Best move is to keep it local and move to Sonoma. You will be well positioned for solid updates on the reg.
And…just think how much you’ll save on shipping costs!! Win/Win!! 
Don’t forget you also get to avoid all of that annoying Marin County traffic and the cost of the Golden Gate Bridge toll!
I’ve been trying to avoid FB services after the Facebook Papers were released. But looking at the IG, that appears to be the missing link to the podcast for me.
i messaged Chris last night trying to convince him to start doing OVZ in boxes like Tablas Creek. or Lulu. dang it would be great to just have a box of Lulu sitting in the fridge ready to go during the summer.
They deleted many “vineyard profile” videos.
How about tenths?
How about more caps?
This… Would be amazing.
Seconded!
Hey All- Since this is usually asked for I am posting the release newsletter and notes here.
It has been an exciting year so far at Bedrock Wine Co.! After a couple years of trying to steer the ship while we raced over ferocious seas, it feels like we have hit a relative calm. Yes, there are still many challenges facing us (most notably rising costs and inflation), but on a basic human level, things feel a bit more stable for the time being. It also feels like a good time to talk about some recent developments at Bedrock Wine Co., as some things we have quietly been working on over the last few years are starting to come to fruition, including a new vineyard featured in this release.
Bedrock Vineyard
After several years of fallow time, soil amendments, and ordering rootstock and scion wood, the vines in Block 7 are happily scrambling up the stake. What used to be a single, 11-acre block of Cabernet that was succumbing to phylloxera on AXR-1 is now six separate blocks. In deciding what to replant, we opted for what one might call “highly traditional with a modern twist.”
Our main goal when developing the new blocks was for them to me minimally irrigated (dry-farmed if possible) while also using organic, non-till practices to sequester carbon and build soil organic matter. We opted to plant on a wide spacing of 9x5 more in line with what we see in old vineyards. By giving the vines more square feet per vine to scavenge resources, we’re encouraging them to be less reliant on irrigation in the future. We coupled this with the use of deep-rooting rootstocks that are good resource scavengers and have proven ideal for dry-farming in other situations. The twist for these blocks is that we used very little St. George rootstock (which is the most commonly used rootstock in our oldest vineyards); instead, we used 1103P, 110R and GRN-3, the latter of which was recently developed by Andy Walker at UC Davis. The challenge with St. George is that it is SUCH a good resource scavenger that it tends to take up a fair amount of potassium. Bedrock is already a very high potassium site (as are many of the volcanic soils of California’s north coast), so using stocks that minimize potassium uptake will help keep pH’s lower and freshness up in the finished wines.
The fun, and somewhat scary, part of the development was deciding which varieties to plant. Here again, we looked to the past for guidance but have added our own twist based on our understanding of the site.
Of the six blocks planted, five were planted to primarily red varieties and one to whites. For all, our primary consideration was not only what would do well in Sonoma Valley now, but also what might work best as we head into an increasingly unknown climate future.
The most “traditional” are the two Zinfandel blocks that also saw almost 20% of other varieties interplanted into them. This practice, which is what makes our Heritage wines from centurion vineyards so unique, should also play dividends in the vineyard’s youth, as they will help provide color, structure and perfume as the vineyard gains natural concentration due to age. Perhaps most exciting is that many of the field-blended varieties chosen are the first cuttings to be made available from a years-long project between the Historic Vineyard Society and UC Davis, where we have cleaned up some of the oldest and rarest varieties found in California’s vineyards. The result is that we were both able to use those varieties most commonly field-blended in California vineyards—Mataro, Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah—we were able to supplement with Syrah (a selection from Bedrock’s 1888 cuttings), Petit Bosuchet, Vaccarese and even some whites using wood from other old California vineyards.
Two of the other three red blocks were planted to stalwarts that have historically flourished at Bedrock and where we think there is potential for very high quality. Mataro/Mourvedre, which we have planted in our 1880s blocks and has become the backbone for our Ode to Lucien in one block, along with Grenache, which does so well at neighboring Old Hill in another. Both delight in a warm climate and seem to love that rocky, red soils of the Agua Caliente Bench where Bedrock is located.
The final two blocks, one red and one white, is where people in a few decades will either think we struck gold or jumped the shark. It is also where we are planting the flag on understanding which other varieties—originally from similarly warm, usually Mediterranean environments—might do well here. In the red block, we based the blend around Touriga Nacional, one of my favorite varieties in the world, along with a little bit of Touriga Franca, Mourisco, Donzelinho, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Amarela. For me, Touriga is like a warmer-climate Syrah filled with deep fruit, amazing violet and pepper perfume and elegance. A single example we made in 2015 from York Creek Vineyard on Spring Mountain is still one of my favorite wines we have ever made. For the white block, we went full mad scientist, using Assyrtiko and Petit Manseng and the foundational varieties along with a few rows each of Viura, Muscat a Petit Grains, Muscat of Alexandria, Albillo Mayor and Barbarossa. Here again, the focus is on natural acid retention along with lively aromatics.
No matter what, we will learn something!
Beeson Ranch
We are in the fortunate position of having a quiver of golden arrows when it comes to vineyards—I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I think of how fortunate we are. Over the years we have also worked with vineyards that haven’t been the right fit for our viticulture and winemaking practices, so they did not evolve into a long-term relationship. Because of this, we are very selective about working with new vineyards. When we were presented with the opportunity to lease and farm Beeson Ranch, a vineyard that checks all the boxes for us, we simply had to say yes. Over the last few years, under the eye of our viticulturist, Jake, we have been able to get a good sense of the site before finally getting the fruit for the first time in 2021.
Locate in the southwest corner of Dry Creek Valley Beeson is one of the most beautiful sites for old vine Zinfandel I have seen. Planted on extremely sleep slopes across a variety of expositions, the ranch has many small blocks, each with a slightly different aptitude. The soils, classified as a combination of Boomer and Josephine loams, are extremely complex and are red in color, silty in texture and flecked with large chunks of quartz crystal, greenstone and other metavolcanic formations. Every time I walk the ranch, I wish I had paid more attention in geology class. The blocks, almost all originally planted in the early 1900s, are generally Zinfandel, though you can stumble across a Petite Sirah or Grenache vine here and there. Perhaps what I love most though about the ranch is how different its backdrop is compared to much of Dry Creek. While Teldeschi Ranch and the famed eastern bench of Dry Creek backs up to mountains filled with coyote brush, manzanita, madrone and scrub oak—all classic to a low water, western-facing landscape—the top of Beeson Ranch is made of massive redwoods and all the lush plants that flourish in their shadow. To this day, an artesian spring flows behind the property, some of its water captured in a century-old cistern reminiscent of a Japanese pagoda.
The wines reflect this transitory setting between the aridity of Sonoma County’s central corridor and the more verdant lands to the west. In 2021 we decided to ferment almost every single block of Beeson separately to better understand the subtle variations (actually, not always that subtle!) between them. The final blend is a mix of five of the best blocks, mainly planted on the midslope and towards the bottom of the vineyard. What we love about the wine is its high-tone aromatics and elegance—something I don’t always ascribe to Dry Creek—along with its satisfying, mouth-filling fruit profile. In the realm of our line-up, at least in our inaugural vintage with it, it seems to lie closer to the Dolinsek and Carlisle end of the spectrum of our offerings rather than the Lorenzo’s/Nervo/Pagani side; in other words, this wine is pretty delicious even in its brazen youth (full tasting notes further down in the release letter).
2021 Old Vine Zinfandel, California
This is one of the strongest Old Vine Zinfandel bottlings we have made to date albeit a slightly different blend composition due to one of Mother Nature’s curveballs. The main contrast this year is that one of usual main elements of the blend—Esola Vineyard from Amador County—was picked early for rosé to avoid potential smoke issues from nearby wildfires. As a result, the blend leans more heavily into fruit from Sonoma and Contra Costa counties. Fruit from the great Teldeschi Ranch comprises just over 20% of the blend, followed by Beeson, Sodini, Nervo, Dommen, Pagani, Papera, Evangelho, Pato, Katushas’ and Bedrock—aka, a pretty sweet set of vineyards going into our most entry level bottling. The finished blend is 85% Zinfandel with 7% Carignan, 4% Cinsault and bits and bobs of Grand Noir, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet and other field-blended varieties. As usual, the average vine age is around 80 years old, which makes this truly an “old vine” cuvee. Our goal is always to make a wine that reflects what we love most about Zinfandel in California: to showcase its great fruit but also its spice, energy and freshness. Hailing from a drought year, this wine has an added degree of intensity to it that will make it great for early consumption or a little time sideways in the cellar.
2021 Evangelho Heritage Wine, Contra Costa County
Of all the vineyards we farm, Evangelho has been hit the hardest by the record drought conditions we’re currently experiencing in California. Cropping was less than a third of average at 1.1 tons per acre, and the wine shows the added degree of intensity as a result. We have joked that the 2021 is almost like a “demi-glace” of Evangelho, where all its core elements have been concentrated by the small berries and lack of crop. As always, there is great natural brightness here due to winds that sweep through the vineyard every day of the growing season combined with dense red fruits, spice and the signature umami element imparted by the interplanted Mataro and Carignan. This will likely be one of the most age-worthy Evangelhos we have made based on its density alone.
2021 Bedrock Heritage Wine, Sonoma Valley
Crazy to think this is the 15th bottling we have made of this wine! The 1888 plantings at our home ranch produced very small amounts of dense, rich fruit in 2021 that will make this one of the greatest Bedrock Heritage Wines we have made. The wonderfully even growing season and cool August allowed sugars to accumulate slowly and natural acidity to remain bright, making for a classically composed expression of our Sonoma Valley site. As always, this is a field-blend of over 20 different varieties interplanted on the iron-rich, red and cobbly soils of our home ranch. This vineyard is the gravitational center of everything else we do at Bedrock—it is the vineyard we walk with our families in, it is where we have learned via trial and error how to farm. It is in constant evolution, just like our winery and ourselves, and year after year we feel deeper gratitude for its existence and to my father for having the foresight to purchase it nearly two decades ago.
2021 Beeson Ranch Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley
What a first vintage for Beeson Ranch! Though we have been consulting on the farming for the last few years, 2021 was the first year our long-term lease went into effect for this amazing site located on the southwestern edge of Dry Creek Valley. We did not know quite what to expect from this vineyard and have been blown away by both the elegance and power of this wine. Planted on extremely steep and geologically complex slopes with many different exposures, we broke the vineyard into six different lots based on exposure and elevation. The final wine is a blend of our favorite blocks. Super aromatic, with lots of red fruits and an exotic, almost curry leaf element to the nose, this wine reflects the unique corner of southwestern Dry Creek that it occupies. This should provide a lot of pleasure in the nearer term but has the bones to develop over the next decade.
2021 Katushas’ Zinfandel, Mokelumne River
We bought Katushas’ Vineyard in the middle of the growing season of 2014. At that point, it was still furrow-irrigated (a form of flood irrigation), heavily sulfur dusted, poorly pruned and seemed to be at the end of its window as a productive vineyard. Over the last eight years, we have poured resources into the vineyard to bring back soil health, create balanced vines and above all, allow it to reach the acme of quality we hoped it capable of. It has been a slow process, but we have relished seeing the wines from the vineyard move up the fruit quality ladder from Shebang! (our value wine), to Old Vine Zinfandel, to a larger and larger share of Schmiedt Road (a blend with neighboring Kirschenmann) to finally, with the 2021 vintage, being able to shine on its own. Here, this lovely growing area, located in an oxbow of the Mokelumne River, shows off the combination of juiciness and freshness that makes the wine so compelling. Planted in 1915 on sandy soils, this own-rooted Zinfandel is more about the elan which comes with well-drained soils and the spicy, fresh-plum, fruit that makes Lodi Zin, at its best, so delicious.
2021 Carlisle Zinfandel, Russian River Valley
If there is any wine we make that is a pure, fruit-rich pleasure explosion, it is Carlisle. Though predominately Zinfandel, Carlisle Vineyard has a whopping 30+ interplanted varieties, including rarities such as Grec Rouge, Albillo Mayor and many more—which makes walking the vineyard a bit like visiting an old curiosity shop. Located in the Piner Olivet area of Russian River Valley, the cool climate coupled with the clay soils makes for a wine that bursts with blue, spicy fruit, leavened by a beam of brightness that prevents it from feeling overly rich. I remember having my first Carlisle Vineyard wine on a cold night when living in New York and feeling like it was a beam of California love that warmed my soul. We hope this does the same for you wherever you are.
2021 Pagani Ranch Heritage Wine, Sonoma Valley
This is the last Pagani Ranch that Bedrock Wine Co. will make, and it is a classic. This 1880s-planted site features a lot of dark-toned varieties in its field blend—things like Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Petit Bouschet, Mataro and Lenoir—which always makes it one of the broadest shouldered and most dramatic wines we make. As is typical, this wine is opaque in color and filled with the dark, rich fruit the vineyard is so well known for. A rare vineyard that cropped well in 2021, we are happy that we will have enough of this to go around. We have appreciated working with Pagani Ranch for the last decade and are very happy with this rendition, as it makes for a lovely final statement for Bedrock’s last Pagani vintage. Rather than going into the complex reasons behind our decision to no longer work with the ranch we will instead appreciate the years we worked with it and leave it at that.
2019 Calico Syrah, California
Our last wine to release from the 2019 vintage, Calico Syrah is built around the swan song vintage from Griffin’s Lair Vineyard. Unfortunately, the extraordinary site began to feel the ill-effects of widespread Syrah-decline, and despite having the incredible perfume and aromatics the site is known for, it was a bit less intense than usual. This is where the beauty of blending comes in. The natural foil for this was Hudson Syrah, which adds weight and body and its signature bacon fat, along with a small amount of Bien Nacido X-Block for an added top note of pepper and violet. All in all, this is a very complete and delicious wine from three groundbreaking Syrah sites.
2021 Shake Ridge Barbera, Amador County
This wine has become a bit of a sleeper hit! After releasing the small amount of 2017 Shake Ridge Barbera back on our “pandemic panic release,” we got a tidal wave of feedback on how much people enjoyed it. We also loved the wine, so we were able to talk grower extraordinaire Ann Kramer to sell us a bit more from the fantastic P-block at Shake Ridge Ranch. There is something truly special about Barbera in Amador County—the hot nights temper the vivacious natural acidity of the variety, and the granitic soils make for a dense structure that serves the variety well. This is a blend of two small lots, one of which featured a higher percentage of whole-cluster to amplify spice and perfume. Unfortunately, the vineyard got hit with terrible frosts this spring so there will be no Barbera in 2022—make sure to get some ’21 to hold you over!
2021 Ode to Denise “White Zinfandel”, Amador County
The Caldor fire, which burnt 221,835 acres across El Dorado Country from August 14- Oct. 21st, 2021, ruined the harvest for many foothill vineyards. Concerned that Amador County would be affected, we decided to pick all of Esola Vineyard on the earlier side and make a rosé from the fruit, thereby ensuring that it would be free of smoke concerns. We have loved several of the renditions of dry rosé of Zinfandel from other producers and always thought that Esola, with its incredible aromatics, granitic structure and beam of acid, would make a great one. On top of this, there is the fun history that the original Sutter Home “White Zinfandel” was made a few thousand yards from Esola Vineyard at an old winery on Shenandoah School Road. This wine, of course, does not have any residual sugar in it, so even though it shares a pale color with that popular 80s beverage, it is a fully grown-up, complex and dry rosé. Since it comes from vines that yield less than 2 tons-per-acre, it is also dense and perfumed—replete with stone fruits, flowers and mouthwatering acidity.
2021 Monte Rosso Semillon, Moon Mountain District
Due to the tiny yields of the 2021 vintage, we were only able to get enough grapes from the venerable beasts at Monte Rosso Vineyard to fill a single, 500-liter puncheon. In years past, this Semillon, from some of the oldest vines of the variety on the globe, has formed the backbone of Cuvee Karatas—a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. In many years, we have considered releasing a Semillon on its own but felt it too important to the Karatas blend to shave some off into its own bottling. Happily, in 2021 two important things occurred: first, we got excellent quality from a block of Semillon at Bedrock that was perfect for Cuvee Karatas, and second, the Monte Rosso Semillon was perhaps the best it has ever been, which made it a no-brainer to bottle up the 46 cases of it on its own. This is classic Semillon and will age beautifully—full of the richness and dry extract the variety is known for but combined with the stellar acidity of the 2021 vintage. Unfortunately, this is a rare one, but it should be one of the longest-lived white wines we have made.
2020 Compagni Portis Heritage White
Alas, Portis was one of the vineyards most severely affected by the drought, cropping at a miniscule .5 tons per acre in 2020. What wine we do have is absolutely lovely, the early year translating into one of the brightest and most refreshing versions of Portis to date. A field blend of Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Trousseau Gris, Roter Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and a few others, this is planted in one of the most historically important parts of Sonoma Valley (part of the original Buena Vista property) and speaks to the Germanic influence of many of the first wineries in the valley. When we tasted through this whole lineup together, several people thought this wine had an almost Chenin Blanc-like element in its pineapple, lanolin and texture.
2021 Cuvee Karatas
According to an agricultural census document from 1892, Semillon was historically planted at Bedrock Vineyard. One hundred and twenty-nine years later, we got our first full crop off a block planted to Monte Rosso selection Semillon and were absolutely thrilled with the results. The 2021 Cuvee Karatas features 68% Bedrock Semillon blended with 32% Sauvignon Blanc from Judge and Uboldi vineyards. As usual, this Bordeaux-Blanc-style wine was aged in barrels, a portion of which were new, from larger format Sylvain and Taransaud puncheons. None of the lots were put through MLF to retain as much brightness and energy as possible. In classic Karatas fashion, this features the stone fruit, citrus and heft of Semillon tempered by the beautiful aromatics and cut of Sauvignon Blanc. This should age but has some opulence that will show nicely if drunk in its youth.
2021 Wirz Riesling
We had the joy of interviewing Pat Wirz recently for an upcoming episode of Bedrock Wine Conversations and can’t wait for you to hear it. He is a living legend in San Benito County and is about as true to the terroir of the gorgeous, wild and remote Cienega Valley as you can get. His Riesling, which he has carefully tended for decades, is exceptional and reflects its location. Always filled with tons of character, the 1963 vines rendered a beautiful, lime-zested, savory expression of the variety in 2021. It has been wonderful to see the vineyard get recognition over the last few years (see Pat as cover-boy of SF Chronicle article here) and every time we make the harrowing drive up to the vineyard gate and get our first glimpse of the staggering Cienega Valley floor, we are reminded how absolutely worth the long drive is.
Love the replanting story - thanks for all those geeky details! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
evangelho… cant wait!
Thank you Morgan!
What great notes … sounds like an awesome release.
Looking forward to this! Any large format or small format offerings?
Thank you ! Have not read anything as informative as this since reading Angels Visits. Pleased to be a patron !
So glad to see Barbera is back!