Evangelho, I’ve loved the Bedrock Heritage and Desire Lines Experimental, both young and aged.
My family and I tried a Bedrock Evangelho Carignane the other night with roasted pheasant that surprised me in the best way. Fresh, vibrant red fruits that evolved every 5 minutes with great acidity. My father enjoys all the Bedrock I open, but he was emphatic about getting more bottles of this wine.
Anyway, the diversity of the vineyard and all the great wineries that utilize the fruit make it my top CA vineyard.
This is something I need to correct, I’ve never had a wine from Mt. Eden. Problem is Cab and Chard are among my least favorite grapes. Not that I don’t like them, but they never reach the heights that Syrah and Riesling do for me.
I’m not at all surprised that your favorite is a vineyard from which Mike Officer makes wine.
What do you think about a California ‘heritage’ vineyard theme for one of our dinners? We haven’t had a California wine dinner in a long time. Maybe steaks or food you eat with your hands (burgers, ribs, tacos, pizza…) and wines from California heritage vineyards.
There’s also Pinot Noir. I mentioned Peter Martin Ray, which is blocks of the same vineyard, but owned by the Ray family. The entire vineyard was originally planted and owned by Martin Ray. The PMR Cab is head trained. Farming is top quality from both teams, and the wineries sourcing PMR are also top quality. Mount Eden gives you Jeffrey Patterson, who’s been fine tuning his farming for over 40 years. PMR lets you add the likes of Ceritas, Arnot-Roberts, Sandar & Hem, Birichino and Jaime Motley for contrast.
I’ll add about Trout Gulch. Forumites likely know it from Kutch and Ceritas. Richard Alfaro has been farming it for decades. His son Ryan has taken over as the Alfaro winemaker and has his own label, Farm Cottage. Don’t go skipping the Trout Gulch Chards and Pinots from those two labels just because they cost a lot less.
The Pinot from Mt. Eden I need to try. I’m not a huge fan of Cali pinot, more of an Oregon guy.
With the food I eat and raise, southern Rhone and Spanish grapes are my jam. Zin, grenache, mataro, tempranillo and carignane seem to go well with ranch raised beef and all the game we hunt. Furmint or Riesling go better with pheasant than Chard, syrah goes better with all game or beef in my mind than Cab. With our dry aged beef, I like a Bedrock Heritage or Bordeaux than any Cali Cab.
I’m also of the opinion that WA/OR Rocks syrah is a better fit for our food adventures than CA syrah.
This board has taught me a crazy amount and has me gravitating towards Loire Cab Franc and Chenin plus some German reds.
California is huge and very diverse in climate. For your preferences you’re wise to stay away from market driven styles. The Santa Cruz Mountains was never rewarded for following trends and has always had an independent spirit. It’s true cool climate and geologically diverse. The general terroir and moreso of many specific sites is amazing. There have been wines from here beating their French counterparts in blind tastings since the 1890s. From the 1860s through 1960s there were well praised Germanic whites from the Vine Hill subregion and later Ben Lomond and elsewhere. Pinot, Chard and Cab are the most common grapes, but there are quite a few others, and it’s growing. Look for Syrah from Ascona and Split Rail vineyards. Ascona has California’s best Sangiovese, Can Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. We’ll see how the Aligote, Chenin, Gamay and Negroamaro do. A couple vineyards are putting out some mighty impressive Nebbiolos. We’ve moved from having a handful of world-class wineries with many more making no frills wines that were much better than so much of the highly rated mediocrity. Amazing terroir beats out trying too hard.
Of course, there are plenty of great wines from elsewhere in the state, but those aren’t the easy to sell wines that set the stereotype.
Check this out, for one of the great SCM wines, still at its peak: https://www.klwines.com/Auction/Bidding/AuctionBidDetail.aspx?sku=1727054&searchId=d6c2ca0d-3ff4-444e-b082-a0eb68a55783&searchServiceName=klwines-prod-productsearch&searchRank=1
Bid on this bottle of 1974 Ridge Vineyards “Monte Bello” Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon (100RP, 100VN, 98WS, 97JD, 95JG). Vinous: “I have been fortunate to drink the 1974 Monte Bello three times in the last year. I served this bottle, from my cellar, blind to a group of hard-core Francophiles at the end of a dinner that showcased the best of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Every person in the room thought the wine was Bordeaux. No one came close to guessing California, much less identifying the age of the wine or the vintage. When the 1974 Monte Bello was revealed, there was only silence at the table. Tasted from a perfect bottle, the 1974 remains almost unnaturally deep, powerful and intense. It is an eternal wine whose life will only be determined by how well corks hold up. Put simply, the 1974 Monte Bello is one of the greatest and most singular wines I have ever tasted from any region in the world. (AG)” (07/2016)
Tough call between Evangelho, Old Hill and Shake Ridge for me. All three have such clear signatures that carry across producers, which seems the obvious mark of grand cru terroir.
I’ve had a few Ridge Monte Bello’s and loved them. I do enjoy all the Ridge MB estate wines. It’s an area that I would like to spend some tasting in, as it’s an area that does interest me.
This is a great thread! Evangelho, is certainly one of mine. Other vineyards that I love have been mentioned. I’ll mention a couple of others - for Pinot, Horseshoe, Summa OV and Pisoni. For Zin, Saitone, Papera, Aldos and Pesente. Monte Bello (prominently mentioned) for Cab. So many amazing choices.
