TN: 2009 Bedrock Wine Co. The Bedrock Heirloom

WINE TALK
1

I decided to take one for the team - way too young but this wine will be released early November and I didn’t see any point holding onto this single bottle until then. I don’t know if it’s the stage in this wine’s development, but this came across considerably more elegant than my memory of the '08.

  • 2009 Bedrock Wine Co. The Bedrock Heirloom - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (10/24/2010)
    Decanted through an aeration device about an hour before drinking. Color is dark garnet, lightening towards the edges. Nose is amazing, intensely perfumed with flowers and spices. This is a wine you could just sit and take in the aromas. On the palate, red fruits take a background note to flowers and black pepper. Finishes with leather and baking spices, lingers for a good 15 seconds. With some air, red fruits and dry tannins start to show more on the finish. Quite elegant at this young stage. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Thanks for being a “Team Player” Larry and thanks for the preview! [cheers.gif]

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Thanks for the early look. I missed the '08, but will not do the same with this one.

4
  • 2009 Bedrock Wine Co. The Bedrock Heirloom - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (2/6/2011)
    Pop 'n pour. Rich and full-bodied with lots of baking spice and ripe red fruit. Zin character dominates but pretty primary at this stage – tastes like a barrel sample. Well balanced with a long finish. I’m gonna let my last bottle rest for a couple more years. IMO, an order of magnitude better than the disappointing '09 Dolinsek Heirloom. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

5

Nice Larry. I’m looking foward to this as well as the 08 Heirloom.

For some reason, I’m forcing a little patience on Morgan’s Heirlooms. Based on my experience with the 08 Lorenzo’s (and your note), these appear ready to shine!

6

After having tried the other '09 Bedrock Zins, I stuck my '09 Heirlooms in storage for another day. I think these puppies need some sleep. As an aside, I found the Heirlooms at PC of all places!

Candidly, I have found Morgan’s syrahs more approachable and more enjoyable at this early stage.

7

Mike, the 2-bottle allocations make the cost of opening these quite high, even if not in terms of dollars and cents. My approach to the Bedrock & Lorenzo’s Heirlooms is how I’d treat a Ridge Geyserville or Ravenswood Old Hill, and that is to say, patience will be rewarded.

This particular bottle was a pre-release gift and I figured the proper way to pay it forward was to post a note for the Berzerkers before release. Aren’t I charitable [drinkers.gif]

BTW regarding small allocations, quite a lot of these made it to retail so it’s not too difficult to find if you want more bottles. I asked Morgan why the small mailing list allocations when, near release, I could find a case at retail near the same price (no free shipping of course). He told me that he felt a debt to the distributors who worked hard to get his bottles on retail shelves and restaurant lists before anyone had heard of Bedrock, and he wouldn’t be leaving them out in the cold.

8

The only exception I’d make to this is the Stellwagen, which was showing as a very enjoyable fruit-driven wine on release. But that said, a recent bottle showed that the structure is starting to fill out, so patience here may be reward with something great as well and very different from what you get now.

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Precisely my approach.

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Mike, the 2-bottle allocations make the cost of opening these quite high, even if not in terms of dollars and cents. My approach to the Bedrock & Lorenzo’s Heirlooms is how I’d treat a Ridge Geyserville or Ravenswood Old Hill, and that is to say, patience will be rewarded.

Ridge Geezer and Ravenswood Old Hills (of old) have proven themselves capable of evolving in a positive manner with age. Time and time again new syrahs have hit the spotlight as the next great hope only to remain stagnant with time, no better and no worse for all the days, weeks, months, seasons, and years that have gone by the wayside. So I admire your optimism, but I remain sceptical. I have a boatload of older syrahs in my cellar because I was hyped over syrah back in the heyday of the syrah-plosion, around 2000 or so. I have liked the way Thackrey Orions have aged, but there is that Pet-Syrah controversy. My ESJs have aged very nicely and they have always reminded me (along with countless other things) of how stupid I have been for not buying more in the day. None (I will repeat-“none!”) of my other older syrahs have shown anything to show for the patience and optimism bestowed. Do you happen to remember Glen Lyon? It was the latest example-opened a '99 on Saturday. Beautiful golden lettering embossed onto the heavy bottle made for a nice packaging effort and the wine inside was graceful and sleek and flavorful, but not particulary nuanced or complex or long on the finish. It went well enough with duck gnocchi on a blustery winter day but nothing at all special. No particular secondary, tertiary, quartziary, or Cinco de Mayo flavors for that matter. Why aren’t syrahs selling well? The reasons are complex and mutifactorial, but it doesn’t help that wine enthusiasts knowledgeable about domestic syrahs have found little to go ape about when they raid their cellars for something special and older.

11

Mitch - good points all. The Bedrock Heirloom is an old vine field blend, primarily Zin and Carignane but a significant percent of mixed blacks (probably a little syrah in the mix, but not much).

The age of the vineyard and the varietal mix is fairly similar to Ridge Geyserville.

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Mitch - good points all. The Bedrock Heirloom is an old vine field blend, primarily Zin and Carignane but a significant percent of mixed blacks (probably a little syrah in the mix, but not much).

The age of the vineyard and the varietal mix is fairly similar to Ridge Geyserville.

Oh. Now you tell me. Nevermind. Thanks for being gentle on me Mike.

13

Luckily I have more than 2 of these. Ironically this is because I was too late to get them from the mailer but found them at a local retailer instead.

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Hi Mitch,

From someone who’s first love in wine was the Rhône and who’s been drinking (French) Syrah since the late '80s…

I share some of your frustration with the history of CA Syrah, but I’m also hugely optimistic about the future. I think winemakers and growers here are still learning where Syrah grows best and how to best make wine from those sites, and remember there is very little old vine Syrah in CA, the vast majority planted within the last 20 years.

So, we have young vines, we have a handful of talented winemakers, some saying they’re not happy with how their wines have aged and working through a change of style. It takes a leap of faith to go long on houses and styles with no long-term proven track record, when you don’t necessarily know the result for 5-10 years, but that’s simply where we are, teething pains but I believe a lot of promise for the future.

Personally my biggest concern for Syrah is its ability to weather the down times, to avoid being pulled up for the ‘next big thing’. I’m buying now to drink and to hold, enjoying what can be enjoyed young and supporting the producers I believe are on the right track. Generally though I agree and right now feel a little uneasiness letting any of these go past 5-7 years or so.

…and, what Mike said. The Bedrock Heirloom isn’t Syrah [pillow-fight.gif] (although it contains some).

15

I opened one of these last night, knowing it was younger than ideal, but my wife and I are paring down our mailing list universe some and I was hoping to pick a bottle that would persuade her that Bedrock should make the cut. I splash decanted it and we drank it gradually from the decanter over about 3 hours.

The first sip right after the splash decant was a little shrill and almost spritzy, with high toned violet and raspberry. But the wine settled down quickly and really started to hit its stride after about 20 minutes, and it continued to evolve and to improve through the last sip.

The comparison to Geyserville is a good one. This wine is dense and a bit mysterious, the oak appears to have been used with considerable restraint, and the ripeness/alcohol is definitely to the low side of the spectrum for this type of wine. It has a dense core of cool black and purple fruit, with hints of leather, mineral and black pepper.

Overall, I thought this was both a high quality and a distinctive wine, one which really emphasizes elegance and the complexity of the old vine field blend and the site. I imagine many producers would make a riper, richer and oakier expression from this vineyard that would produce a more crowd-pleasing style, but Morgan appeared to have been aiming for a more cerebral and ageworthy style, and I think he was very successful.

I have two more of these, and I would guess that they will improve for many years, maybe decades.

16

Same mindset as Mike Officer.