Thanks Morgan!
Seriously, I had put my foot down and said ânope, not gonna do it, no more orders until you sort out storage and drink a few cases downâ⌠but bloody fack. How can one resist all of that?
Man, I am so pumped to try that wedding wine. Sounds freaking awesome!
As always, thanks for the early look Morgan.
Me, too. The wedding wine sounds terrific.
Morgan, itâs a joy to read your release notes. To think of all the different wines you produce, from all the different grape varieties, from so many different vineyards - each with its own storyâŚI always smile while reading them, and think you and Chris must have a great time doing what you so obviously love.
Me exactly. Was really trying to limit this to a few SBs and roses, given space/budget/January purchase reasons. But that just got harder.
Curious on the âWedrockâ pricing and allocations.
I wrote down some buying goals for 2020 to limit myself, guess I might as well throw that out the window so I can load up on more Bedrock.
Thank you, it is a pretty good gig!
For those of who who want to read the newsletter here is it. Maybe a bit darker than I normally like to go but outlining the reality of Oakley and Antioch right now.
We are heroes of the homeland, American remains.
We live in many faces and answer many names.
We will not be forgotten, we wonât be left behind.
Our memories live on in mortal minds
And poets pens.
Weâll ride again.
-American Remains, The Highwaymen
We lost Salvador Vineyard a few months ago. And when I say âweâ I do not mean Bedrock Wine Co., Chris or me, or even maybe Turley (though they had taken the fruit for a quarter century)- rather, wine and history lovers as a whole lost something precious. For the development company that bought the ranch for tract homes the vines were just another relic of a bygone age in Contra Costa County- I am sure they had no idea that Robert Parker gave the 2013 vintage from the vineyard the second highest score he ever gave for a Zinfandel in his long career. Driving the streets of Oakley it is easy to see that Salvador is just the most recent casualty of decades of suburban creep that will continue to cost the area many of its last remaining vinous jewels.
Fifty years ago Oakley was a much different place. With the imposing Mt. Diablo as a backdrop, grapes, almonds, and apricots dominated an agricultural landscape much in line with the vision of James OâHara who purchased the area from the government in 1887 for $5 an acre. Portuguese families, attracted to the Delta for its fishing and farming opportunities along with an ethnic mosaic of Italians, Spaniards, and others brought human fertility to the deep soils of granitic sand.
As Boomerâs boomed in the Bay Area, suburbia began to pour over the bounds of the Coastal Range inland towards Pittsburgh, Antioch, Oakley and Brentwood. âLittle Boxesâ began to dominate the easterly slopes of Mt. Diablo. Highway 4, once a path for produce into the Bay from fertile inland areas, is now one of the most congested roadways in a region defined by gridlock. At its far western end near Martinez the artery ironically passes a monument to John Muir, who used to launch his eastward treks into the Sierra Nevada from its starting point. Tract homes, strip malls, chain restaurants and auto dealers now dominate the landscape and the clear view to the mountains that lured Muir in their direction is now occluded by a seemingly permanent haze.
Over the last few decades nearly 80% of agricultural land in Oakley, and even more in neighboring Antioch, has been converted to different human installations. With the continued eastward march of Bay Area Rapid Transit, âFor Saleâ signs rise out of the sands in front of old vineyards welcoming the twisted phoenix of sprawl. A flurry of arguments surrounding the use âeminent domainâ occupies columns of print. The city of Oakley has plans for a large mall- Costco, Bass Pro Shop, Target , you know the type- on what is one of the last large expanses of old vines in the area. Currently there are âfor saleâ signs on Live Oak Vineyard (the main source of Ode to Lulu Mataro) and Oakley Road Vineyard (Bedrock and Once & Futures (and a notable others) source of Mataro, Zinfandel and Carignan). This is where some of Californiaâs oldest and best vineyards are most threatened, and where the dichotomy of old fashioned agriculture meeting the reality of human expansion is most stark. It is here where author Don Delilloâs quip that, âThe future belongs to the crowdsâ seems most prescient.
The main problem is simply that farmers are a dying breed in Oakley. The current generation of families that own the few remaining vineyards are getting close to retirement and the next wave does not relish the hard, and often times minimally profitable, existence their parents endured. This, combined with the housing pressure created by the pulsing leviathan of Bay Area commerce, creates a situation where vineyard acreage is selling to developers for $200-250k an acre- a pretty good retirement for one who has picked sand out of their eyelashes on the back of aging tractors for decades.
Perhaps the greatest irony of this eastward expansion is that the vines of Oakley are finally getting some respect put on their name by the California winemaking community. In an area that was reliant for so long on enormous Central Valley operations to take their fruit for Central Valley pricing, people are no flocking to the sands realizing what rare beasts the remaining vines are. 100+ year old, own-rooted, vines planted in sand are extraordinarily rare no matter where you are in the world. The result is that fruit which as recently as a decade ago was selling for less than $1000 a ton (barely subsistence farming on paid off land) now, if farmed well, will sell for $2500-$3500. In 2011 Frank Evangelho could not sell all of his fruit from his ranch even at those low prices. There is now a waiting list.
It is hard to know exactly what grape culture in Oakley will look like as we move through the next several decades. For those of us who work with the vines in, and love the wines from, this uniquely American growing area each visit requires some mental steeling as it is common to find yet another vineyard felled in the name of progress. However, when one sees the wines being made from the area, and the healthy price points being asked for the wines, from the likes of Sandlands, Dirty & Rowdy, Turley, Ridge (making Evangelho again), Neyers, Cruse, Fine Disregard, Precedent, Desire Lines, Calder, and so many more, there is grounds for optimism that a groundswell of winemaking imagination has caught up with the historically untapped potential of the area. Grain by grain more sand is being put onto the side of the scale weighted towards economic sustainability for grapes in the region- and this, fundamentally, is the greatest bulwark against these old vines eventual passing into the dusk. I have a feeling that if Frank were still with us he would be celebrating this point, and perhaps reminding us that in his tenure he has seen worse. I hope.
Just when I thought I could take a break for a few months. Itâll be very hard to keep this to a one-case limit. 
offering is live!!
Kept it somehow to a little over a case (case and a half if wishlists come through)
Surprised no one has commented on this, but thank you Morgan for your eloquent cri de coeur. Youâre such an inspiration and a badass.
Still waiting for my e-mailâŚ
no email yet but the offer is live
Order in.
In for 3 monte rosso, 3 Weill, 3 evangelho and wished for 3 wedding
Didnât get my email yet, but I just logged in.
Just curious, I thought the Monte Rosso was a cab, but my offering shows a Monte Rosso zinfandel label and describes it as a zin. Perhaps this is just a mistake?
My order is in.
Kept it to mostly Rose and Sauv Blanc in a rare fit of self control, but did wishlist some âWedrock.â
Enz, Lorenzoâs, Wedrock and Lulu.
Enormous feat of self-control to keep to a case (+wishlist for Wedrock)⌠but in for Weill, Evangelho, rose and the two cabs. Interesting that my Monte Rosso allocation was bigger than my Sonoma Cab allocation.