TN: 2009 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel (USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley)

Nate_Simon · February 2, 2011, 6:19am

2009 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (2/1/2011)
I’ll be a bit of a contrarian on this one…not to say that I thought the wine was fantastic, but rather that it needs time to be judged accurately. Everything about this is painfully young and backwards, with super-tight flavors, sharp acidity, and some coarseness to the tannins and overall mouthfeel. in short, it strikes me as tasting like a backwards barrel sample. There are certainly some of those flavors people mentioned; I liken it to more of a fruit compote sort of thing. Nonetheless, while I don’t expect revelatory greatness, I do think it needs time to be judged fairly.

Morgan, are you able to provide some insight as to where this controversial wine came from and is going?

P_Intag · February 2, 2011, 2:50pm

The bottles I tried were definitely not “backwards”. They were juicy, ripe and jammy. Your bottle seems very, very different than the ones I tried.

Peter_Petersen · February 2, 2011, 3:50pm

I think it is a young vine zin from Dolinsek Ranch. I liked the wine, but it also reminded how important it is to preserve old vine zin.

Mike_Maguire · February 2, 2011, 3:56pm

I"m not an expert by any means,but I do have 30+ yrs of wine drinking experience and find it rather amusing that people are willing to pass judgement on such a young wine as this.I never touch any of my Ridge zins and blends for at least 5+ years, and I will treat the Bedrock reds the same way.I trusted Paul Draper and will do the same with Morgan,cut from much the same cloth IMHO

Larry_P · February 2, 2011, 4:37pm

haha I wonder what Joel Peterson would say about that

Generally speaking I agree, however some of Morgan’s wines, this one, the '09 Dolinsek, the '09 Stellwagen, should probably be slated for early drinking (within 5 years of the vintage). That said, these have been in bottle a couple months, and with minimal racking and late sulphuring there is a potential for bottle shock this early that should be respected.

Morgan_Twain-Peterson · February 2, 2011, 4:51pm

I think the one thing I have learned about this is the importance to hold on to wines before release-- something that will be gradually implemented as cash-flow restraints all me. This wine is way to young to be drinking now, as it is still only eight weeks out from bottling, and since it received its first sulfuring at bottling (a heavier dose than a finish sulfuring) the middle is a bit stripped out right now- something that it will recover from. My notes on the wine right now are much the same as Nate’s. The wine, which comes from 15 year old-vines planted on a steep north-facing slope at Dolinsek Ranch, is tight, has lots of showing acidity (the pH here is 3.3 and the TA around 8, so more on par with SB than typical Zin). Yes, the fruit tone is riper than most Bedrock wines, but the overall response I received when tasting people from barrel was uniformly positive. I think it will make a nice wine in another year or two with a relatively short drinking window, which is something I specified in the newsletter. I, of course, follow cellartracker and this board closely and am dismayed to see people having such a negative experience with the wine as I would never willingly release a wine that I thought to be flawed or did not like myself. I have had it tested to make sure no microbial contamination occurred during bottling and the several samples I have sent in have come back negative for bret, excessive VA, or lactobacillus, pediococcus, and other such pesky things.

Just as a side-note, I would point out that similar, though not as stringent, things were said in the first couple months of release of the 2009 Sonoma Valley Old-Vine Zinfandel, another wine I probably released too early, but the gradual tone and scores from cellartracker are on an upward curve with some more time in bottle (and this applies to several other wines as well).

Mike_Maguire · February 2, 2011, 5:10pm

haha I wonder what Joel Peterson would say about that [wow.gif

P_Intag · February 2, 2011, 9:12pm

Morgan Twain-Peterson:

I think the one thing I have learned about this is the importance to hold on to wines before release-- something that will be gradually implemented as cash-flow restraints all me. This wine is way to young to be drinking now, as it is still only eight weeks out from bottling, and since it received its first sulfuring at bottling (a heavier dose than a finish sulfuring) the middle is a bit stripped out right now- something that it will recover from. My notes on the wine right now are much the same as Nate’s. The wine, which comes from 15 year old-vines planted on a steep north-facing slope at Dolinsek Ranch, is tight, has lots of showing acidity (the pH here is 3.3 and the TA around 8, so more on par with SB than typical Zin). Yes, the fruit tone is riper than most Bedrock wines, but the overall response I received when tasting people from barrel was uniformly positive. I think it will make a nice wine in another year or two with a relatively short drinking window, which is something I specified in the newsletter. I, of course, follow cellartracker and this board closely and am dismayed to see people having such a negative experience with the wine as I would never willingly release a wine that I thought to be flawed or did not like myself. I have had it tested to make sure no microbial contamination occurred during bottling and the several samples I have sent in have come back negative for bret, excessive VA, or lactobacillus, pediococcus, and other such pesky things.

Just as a side-note, I would point out that similar, though not as stringent, things were said in the first couple months of release of the 2009 Sonoma Valley Old-Vine Zinfandel, another wine I probably released too early, but the gradual tone and scores from cellartracker are on an upward curve with some more time in bottle (and this applies to several other wines as well).

Take another look at the Sonoma Valley OV Zin in CT. There is a slight upward trend, but there’s only one score below 87, with most scores in the 88-91 range. The RRV Zin has mostly very low scores with a smattering of higher scores. My experience with the wines reflects this as well (Bother were tasted within a couple of weeks of delivery). IMHO, and the opinions of the 5 or so others I tried these wines with, the Sonoma Zin was a very nice wine and the RRV Zin was not enjoyed by anyone. Will the RRV improve? I don’t know, but I really doubt it given the characteristics that I tasted.

Jon_Troutman · February 2, 2011, 9:28pm

I have a couple of these coming my way, but being on the east coast, I probably won’t see them for awhile. I’d be eager to taste one in its infancy and see where it goes 12 months down the road.

Larry_P · February 2, 2011, 9:37pm

Paul, none of us know where the RRV zin will be in 6 months or a year or two, but I trust Morgan at his word that he would not have released a wine he thought was bad, and I take his explanation of the late dose of sulfur as a plausible explanation for the wine’s current state. IIRC Morgan offered to buy back your remaining RRV and you turned him down. If you really believe this wine is going nowhere, then why not take him up on it? Why step in here and essentially say you don’t believe him on this one?

That was a stand-up move from Morgan and instead of accepting it you come back to

Brian_Tuite · February 2, 2011, 10:04pm

No shit Larry. I was wondering the same.

Seo_S_a_l_i_m_i · February 2, 2011, 10:05pm

What he said

Peter_Petersen · February 3, 2011, 1:03am

+4 to what Larry said.

Scott_Silton · February 3, 2011, 1:12am

I have no doubt that Morgan operates in good faith and runs a quality operation, and I look forward to doing business with Bedrock for the foreseeable future. I should like to meet him sometime; sounds like a real mensch.

My bottle of RRV was not flawed, was served under ideal conditions, never improved with air, and had the flavor of prunes and other characteristics of spoofy schwag wine. I hope that bottle is not representative of what this wine has to offer, but my judgment of the bottle was not ‘premature’ and I won’t suffer arguments from authority. If this wine is going through phases, so be it, but it is perfectly reasonable for people to be popping a $20 offering given that
*the 09 Stellwagen is drinking pretty well
*the 09 Old Vines is drinking pretty well (I do think both these wines will be better next winter or thereafter, however)
the 09 Dolinsek, while also affected by some of the same ripe, ripe fruit I don’t care for in the RRV, is drinking well now
*the 09 Sonoma Syrah is freaking incredible right now. I am finishing a bottle today and wishing I had bought a case
*from the release notes:

At a time when many people, for whatever the reason, seem keen on getting a sense of the Bedrock wines, I am reticent to release wines that I feel are not showing well upon release. As such, I have delayed the release of several of the wines I was planning on releasing this Winter as they simply do not taste ready to go out of barrel.

– “as such” means “as a consequence of” and thus indicates that the wines NOT being delayed were in fact showing well upon release. If this wine was meant to be held, that was not clear from the marketing. Actually, the marketing makes it seem like the wines selected to be released were those the winery knew would be consumed as evaluation wines in the short term!
*the label on the wine reads "…“the wine should be enjoyed for it’s exuberant fruit in its youth.”
So sorry, not buying the premature meme. Full stop.

The next time I try the RRV will be in the summer in a single blind flight. Prunes = death. We’ll see. I believe that if this wine devolves, is a roller-coaster, or is otherwise disappointing, Morgan would admit it, learn from it, and move on, and I also believe that there are enough objective tasters out there that bottle variation foreshadowed by statements like

I have felt some regret releasing the 2009 Zinfandels so early. The wines, perhaps a bit more structured and backwards than the bombastic 2008’s, have demonstrated more moodiness post-bottling than I have encountered before.

will be revealed as such. Maybe the RRV is being moody while the other wines just straight up young. If so, future bottles will get better and that would be swell. I don’t want to drink a bad bottle of wine just to be validated, but nor would I concede that the wine in the bottle I opened was actually good wine I couldn’t appreciate. That’s absolute bullshit.

In the meantime, I am going to focus on the positive. I will pass on Dolinsek fruit for the time being, but I am otherwise psyched for upcoming releases, omg it’s almost time for Rose! My cellar is better than ever, and life is good

Michael_Martin · February 3, 2011, 2:14am

Bring on the Rose!!

ChrisBeacham · August 7, 2012, 10:55pm

Data point: Upon receipt of the latest Bedrock offering I pulled out my last (of 2) of this. When I had the first I wasn’t blown away but I wasn’t unhappy either – certainly didn’t want a credit. Well this rocks. A bit of alcohol sticks out, that’s the downside.

But the upside is wonderful. Full, rich, blackberry, blueberry, a bit Asian spice, lovely. Cedary, cocoa nose. Nice finish of berries, tart jam. The alcohol knocks it down a bit from the outstanding range but as Special Agent Dale Cooper said, “Damn good cup of Zin!”