Uh, I got the impression he was very intense and lived the Hollywood lifestyle at some point in his life.
I found this link which will offer some insight.
I tried a barrel sample of this wine last weekend. Haven’t had a chance to share tasting notes yet but will try to this weekend. Quick summary was I was really impressed with this wine. Was a classic, restrained but sexy Cab. Will be buying as much as I can.
Side note - Chris was a fantastic host and I’m positive anyone who gets to spend time with him will have a great experience. He is a real asset to Bedrock. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I am so pleased that the vineyard and appellation piqued peoples interest!
First off, the Moon Mountain AVA was just recognized this year. As a Sonoma Valley boy I have long been aghast that the Sonoma side of Mount Veeder and all of its unique soils, California chaparral, elevation, etc. have been simply lumped into Sonoma Valley, particularly when Sonoma Mountain has long enjoyed its own official viticultural area. Yes, it shares its name with a winery that once existed (and frankly, prior to the sale of Diageo actually made some great wines, the 1994 Cab Franc in particular is great), but the winery originally took its name from the mountain and highland valley that makes up most of the recently drawn appellation. Anyone that drives over Oakville Grade and Trinity Road can see the remarkable change in native flora when one passes into the Sonoma-side watershed.
Second, there are really three major soil types on the Moon Mountain Ava. The first is the Red Hills Clay Loam that defines Monte Rosso, parts of Repris (formerly known as Moon Mountain Vineyard), Amapola Creek, Rancho Salina, and the several vineyards in the north of the appellation on Nelligan Road in Nun’s Canyon (Turley’s Fredericks Vineyard, Monticello, the original Kistler Vineyard, Vendimmia, and a number of others worth naming if I were typing ad nauseum). The second is whiter soils defined by tufa. There is a little of this at Kamen, but more up at Bismark Vineyard and others along Cavedale Road. The third is basically pure basalt, which really differentiates Kamen Vineyard from most other vineyards in that it is intensely, stupidly, tire-poppingly, rocky.
Kamen vineyard, which I will try to describe in the release newsletter, is like no other vineyard I have seen. I have been to most of the Napa “cult” vineyards and I have yet to see one that moves me the way that Kamen does. It is the viticultural opus of Phil Coturri’s career which has been funded by the lovely and loveable madness of Robert Kamen. There are parts of the vineyard where Phil, via the use of cover crops and compost and rock crushers, has literally created soil on slopes of tennis to soccer ball sized rock. It is as modern and perfect a vineyard as one will find anywhere in California and I would argue it is the best, modern, organically farmed vineyard I have ever seen.
I have long argued (and those who read the newsletter in 2009 when I released the 2007 Bedrock Vineyard Cabernet can attest) that Sonoma Valley is as excellent a site for Cabernet varieties as Napa. However, years of second-rate status has meant that Sonoma wineries get a fraction of what Napa wineries get for their Cabs (even for equally meh wines), which means that they pay less for their grapes, that farmers get paid less, that farmers limit inputs and focus on cropping, that wineries get lower quality grapes, which makes the wines worse, and so on and so on. Yes, I know their are some exceptions but they are the serious minority.
Kamen is the only vineyard I have seen in Sonoma that breaks this mold and when Robert offered to sell fruit for the first time in the vineyard’s history in 2012 I was immediately in. Yes, it was crazy expensive by my standards, but I have always loved mountain fruit from Mt. Veeder and longed to make it myself. Also, though it was expensive, the fruit farmed the same way in Napa would be 3-4x the amount.
Most importantly, the wine itself is something I am really proud of. It is mountain fruit, made in a relatively old-school way, that hopefully reeks as much of hot basalt and the three plus decades of effort by Phil Coturri and Robert Kamen as a wine made by Bedrock Wine Co.
-Morgan
P.S. As an aside, I realize the pricing on this wine is high by traditional Bedrock standards. However, if we were to follow the Beckstoffer model of the wines being 1/100th of the tonnage price we would be charging 38% more. How is that for a nice 8th grade mathematical problem!
Hi Morgan -
Are you going to be pouring the Cabernet at Arlequin later this month?
Wow, what a description. I’m sold. How much did you make Morgan?
Morgan, if you weren’t making wine, you’d be a hell of a marketing guy with that write up…you had me at “hello”! Sold! Looking forward to this release.
I don’t purchase much cab anymore, but I have purchased Morgan’s previous cab offerings and will definitely be buying this.
This sounds very exciting. Can’t wait to try another Bedrock cab if I’m allocated any.
Btw I seem to have missed the Monte Rosso, Zin , Karatas, and Sweet wine offering. Not sure why.
Morgan (or anyone else who knows), is Bedrock making any other Cabernets besides this one at present?
I’ve had a couple bottles if a previous cab from Bedrock which I thought was one of the best Bedrocks; 2009 from Sonoma if I recall?
EDIT: Now that I’m not on my phone and could look it up, there appear to have been three vintages of a Bedrock Vineyard cabernet (07, 09 and 10) and one vintage of a Bordeaux blend “Red Wine” (2008). I loved the 2009 the one or two times I had it. Are any of these happening in the forseeable future?
Also, is this Moon Mountain cabernet a one-time deal, or will it recur in 2013 and beyond?
I don’t know if Bedrock still makes the Bedrock cab.
I have the 2008,09,10 and they are all outstanding. Probably the best cabs under $60-75 as far as I’m concerned.
It’s Kamen Vineyard cab (Moon Mountain AVA) and yes 2013 is in barrel.
Thanks, Larry. As far as you know, is that the only cab or Bordeaux type wine in production for Bedrock?
Morgan has made (and I hope he’ll continue to make) an absolute knock-out, drop dead beauty from Bedrock Vineyard.
Let’s see I finished 8th grade (40 years ago), so that’s $8000 a ton. Hopefully there is enough to go around cuz I suspect it will be selling fast. I know I am looking forward to picking up a few.
Good News!!!
I had a blast chatting with Robert when he visited my market, though he was very brusque with others who said "the wrong thing’, and he made it clear a trade event wasn’t really something he saw much value in doing when he had so little wine to sell. It’s a great vineyard, and I love the estate wines.
I would love to see Morgan get some Syrah from this source…
That’s an interesting question Chris. Certainly Morgan still has access to the Bedrock Vineyard cab, although we haven’t seen one in a while and honestly I don’t know. Might be sitting in bottle or barrel or he might have declassified recent vintages.
Morgan, do you mind clueing us in on the master cabernet plan? As you can see in this thread, there is plenty of interest.
I wouldn’t really say there is much of a master plan. I will say that in 2013 there are four lots of Cabernet in the Bedrock Wine Co. cellar. Kamen Cabernet, Montecillo Cabernet (from 50 year old, dry-farmed vines planted at nearly 2000’ feet, which used to be the backbone of the Kenwood Artist Series wines), Bedrock Cabernet, and a cofermentation of the ancient Merlot and Cabernet out at Bedrock Vineyard (a whopping two barrels). 2012 there will only be the Kamen Vineyard Cabernet. All are Sonoma Valley or Moon Mountain appellation wines.
I like not making much of it as I can make it the way I like it, which is old-school. Picking at sane sugar levels, long extended maceration (the 2013 Kamen was on skins for 90 days), limited amounts of good oak, typically long barrel elevage, and almost no racking.
This must be sick Cab. Strongly suggest bringing barrel sample to Rogue River.