Just in case people wanted to get ahead of it here is the newsletter for this release. Cheers!
Bedrock Library and Rarities Release
The genesis for this release started over a year ago, when Chris and I began to do the “drinking windows” addition to the website. By and large we were thrilled with how the wines have progressed, in many cases realizing that some will be even more age-worthy than originally thought. We also tasted a lot of wines we thought were in a pretty wonderful spot now. Looking at our library inventories of some of these wines, we realized we were never going to open the 120-220ish bottles of each that we had kept back. It seemed wrong to see so many wines in such a nice spot not be appreciated. At the same time, we had frequent requests for back vintage wines from newer members of the Mailing List—folks who understandably are thirsty for a glimpse into what the more recent vintage wines will become when given some time sideways. On top of this (as I will get into in the “rarities” section), we realized we had a number of tiny “one-off” bottlings that were ripe for sharing but too small for our usual allocated releases. Combining these factors we realized that it was time to do a release like this.
It should be noted that we have no idea how fast these wines will sell, so we are also re-offering some early drinking favorites, 2023 Ode to Lulu and the 2023 Sonoma Valley Sauvignon Blanc as a way for folks to get to the 6-bottle shipping break in case only a few bottles of the library/rarity wines are available.
Library Wines
We feel that all the library wines released today are ones we feel are in a nice spot for drinking now, so starting with that caveat, here are some details on a few of them.
2009 Griffin’s Lair: One of the last remaining wines made in the old, converted chicken coop where the winery started and our first vintage from this legendary Sonoma Coast vineyard. This baby was SHUT DOWN when we released it and I honestly did not know when the layer of reduction would crack open to reveal the amazing aromatics I experienced during fermentation. Every couple of years I would revisit it and though it was making progress it felt infinitesimal. Last year it broke through, and the result is a dramatically aromatic Syrah that is very much in its prime.
2010 Bedrock Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon: Not many people know that we started making Cabernet with the first vintage of the winery in 2007. 2010 was the last vintage for a while as the fruit was contracted for by another winery and we moved on to work with the splendid mountain sites of Kamen and Montecillo. This wine was always a powerhouse, and even though it got 95 points from Galloni, I always felt it a bit monolithic in its youth. It has started to show more nuance after 13 years in bottle and is quite delicious.
2013 Montecillo Cabernet Sauvignon: This is just wonderful, classic, old-school mountain Cabernet that is starting to sing aromatically.
2013 and 2015 Alder Spring Syrah: One of the most remote and beautiful sites we have worked with (and still do for Under the Wire). These wines, as is typical of the site, were aromatically wonderful in their youth but high on structure. Now that they are softening out a bit, they were some of the highlights of our retrospective tastings—the essence of Northern Mendocino Syrah co-fermented with a smidge of Viognier.
2014s: These wines are really showing wonderfully across the board. It was a tricky vintage with a lot of stuck fermentations due to depleted canopies and drought conditions, which resulted in a few normal wines not being made. Those that were are singing right now—even more so than the 2013s and in some cases the 2012s. The Monte Rosso is a real highlight as is Nervo.
2014 and 2015 Old Vine Zinfandel: These were maybe the biggest surprise given that their initial pricing was in the low $20s. Dollar for dollar these might be the best wines on the release—both are in the pocket and are absolutely delicious right now.
2015s: This was a warm year where the wines tended to have a lot of early flesh but also structure and spine. The Nervo (along with the 2014) showcases why we feel this vineyard will make some of the wines we are best known for as the decades roll forward. The 2015 Monte Rosso, Oakville Farmhouse and Griffin’s are also all entering a great drinking window.
Rarities
We are always experimenting at the winery. Whether it is co-fermenting 40% Viognier with Syrah to see what happens, making carbonically macerated Sauvignon Blanc, co-fermenting Gewurztraminer skins with Carignan and more, we love an opportunity to get weird and hopefully learn something. Though most of these experimental lots range from “interesting” to positively dreadful (looking at you carbonic Sauvignon Blanc), there have been a couple that have ended up being quite cool and we bottled 20-25 cases of just to capture. One of these offered today is a 100% whole-cluster lot of Old Hill Ranch from 2019- still very much Old Hill but through a different lens that pushes even more spice and structure. Another is the lone time we made “straw wine” from the 1940s Gewurztraminer at Alta Vista- the wine is epic and will be long-lived but the labor and time to make it in the midst of harvest craziness ruled it out for future vintages.
We also have some vineyards that barely produce enough wine to make. The 1906-planted, rock walled “clos” of Puccini Vineyard is one of these. In the best of years we can make a single barrel (20-24 cases) of the wine and in other years where volume is too small we have co-fermented it with the “experimental block” at Bedrock which is composed of wild varieties we have found in our older vineyards—things like Persan, Mollard and Grenache from Old Hill, Castets, Tempranillo and Syrah from Bedrock, Negrette from Oakville Farmhouse, Black muscat from Dolinsek Ranch, Valdigue from Teldeschi, 1896 planted Sauvignon Blanc from Nervo and a few vines of Semillon from the 1880s plantings at Monte Rosso. Another is the one barrel made of Cabernet Pfeffer, the rare grape of Cienega Valley, we made in 2018.
The same can be said for the 2021 Compagni Portis. Normally a staple of our line-up, we only were able to bottle 50 cases due to extreme drought in 2021. The wine is perfumed and exotic and one of the best renditions of Portis we have made—however, at two barrels produced, it was just too little to be able to allocate to the list.
In still other situations, we wanted to capture the first essence of a new block—as is the case with the 2019 Bedrock Grenache. This is the first fruit off an insanely rocky block (like literally just a rockpile deposited by geological movement over the years) that will play a large role in wines coming off the vineyard in the future. The 2019 is in a pretty place–wildly aromatic and entering a nice early drinking window.
Wine in 2024
I would be remiss if I did not talk a little about the current state of the California wine market: it is the most challenging we have seen since the 2008 recession. Demand for wine is down, with recent reports showing a large drop in sales across the industry. Conversations with vintner and grower friends reflect this, and we know many who are questioning the long-term viability of staying in business. It seems like I see an article every day trying to diagnose the problem—be it neo-prohibitionist organizations infiltrating the WHO, the growth of legalized cannabis and hard seltzer style drinks, a generation deep in student loan debt and slow to buy homes and start families (usually when people start buying and cellaring wine), rising costs of living, another generation aging out of buying wine and drinking down their existing cellars, “natural” wine and the confusion of what that term means, and on and on. Like most downturns I am sure it is a bit of a bunch of them all put together. Whatever the reason, the reality is that the wine industry, this thing we love so much, is struggling right now. And as I drive the long highways of California, through places like Lodi, Amador County and even Sonoma and Napa, I see thousands of acres of unpruned vines, all of which will be torn out this summer to make way for more profitable crops.
Though we are more insulated from these macro-trends than most, we have always strived to build a balanced business model that, though driven by this wonderful mailing list, also sells to retailers and restaurants. We are sure that this is the correct long-term strategy but also means we are not completely shielded from these broader economic trends.
That said, though the sky is cloudy right now, it is not falling. There are still lots of passionate wine drinkers, both young and old, from all sorts of backgrounds, who are seeking wines with an authentic story and a sense of place. The wine market will evolve, as it has in the past, as it is still anchored by the fact that wine stands out against most other beverages, alcoholic or not, as a truly agricultural product that can’t be duplicated. As one who walks ancient vineyards almost every day, I will continue to remind myself of this: wine is unlike virtually any libation in the world in that it captures time. It tells stories, both good and bad, of a particular place in a particular year. It reminds us of the birth of children and pets, personal enterprise and movements, of rain and droughts, and also loss and years of emotionally seismic shifts. It is a beverage of memory and has been for eons. For us at Bedrock, each year allows us to tell one more story from vines that have been spinning liquid tales since the advent of electric incandescence, even before the achievements and nadirs of the entire 20th century were conceptualized and lived. Wine made in 2024 is the result of centuries of humans perfecting a process—fundamentally as simple as capturing a precise moment between juice and vinegar that we have learned to turn into something so soul satisfying that it can move a human, existing in our tangled world, into bliss and reverie. That is strong alchemy, and I am reassured that nothing else exists like it.
Before I dismount from my soapbox, if there is one thing I could ask, it would be to share your wine with friends and family, particularly the younger ones. I think every person who loves wines was exposed to an “AHA!” bottle by someone else at some point. I think if we can collectively pay our passion forward we will do a great deal in ensuring a bright future for the soulful wines we all love.
We hope everyone enjoys the opportunity to have access to some of these treasures and little gems from the vault.
As always, we thank you for your support and patronage of our wines.
Best,
Morgan, Chris, Cody, Katie, Seph, Jake, Casey, Jackie, Grant and Aiste.
