2010 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel Monte Rosso Vineyard- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (10/18/2014)
The new shipment came, so I opened this to make room. First sip, I did not like this. It was syrupy and hot. I let the glass and bottle sit for a bit and after an hour it really came together. Purple in color. The nose is brambly with black cherries and some charred wood qualities. Full bodied. Slightly cough drop, lots of raspberries and some black cherries on the palate. Nice thick texture. Enough acidity to carry the wine. Once it came together, the bottle was drained quickly. (92 pts.)
In general I’m in complete agreement with Glenn regarding Monte Rosso. But, for me 2010 is a suspect vintage for aging Sonoma Zin. That heat spike in late August spiked sugars and created a lot of high alcohol wines with intense fruit. For the ones that are drinking well young, IMO there’s a risk in not taking advantage of it.
That said, some wines did better than others, and Monte Rosso did better across the board than many other vineyards, so there may be some age-worthiness in these wines. My approach remains that if they’re good now, drink up.
Interestingly we recently did a 2010 Bedrock Vineyard mini-horizontal between Bedrock, Carlisle, and Ravenswood. The Bedrock and Carlisle were ready to go, bue the Ravenswood was so intensely structured it took 3 days to start to open up. Pretty remarkable on one to sit on for sure. It goes to show that it’s difficult to generalize. Alas there is of course no 2010 Ravenswood MRV.
We have 2010 Monte Rosso in the cellar from Bedrock, Carlisle, and Amapola Creek. I’d be happy to pop a few of these soon and post some notes, but it’s not going to happen this weekend, and probably not weekend next either.
Yeah, this is a hard one because I think both Larry and Glenn are right. Monte Rosso has a remarkable way of aging, even in hard years, and developing into surprisingly good wines that are ageworthy and lovely. That said, the 2010 is both the most immediately forward and jagged of the Monte Rosso’s we have made which makes it a hard wine to speculate on. My general take, if you have several in your cellar, is to try it and decide for yourself. The 2011, 2012 and soon to be released 2013 are certainly more classically composed and I feel much more convinced on their long term aging potential.
I’m drinking a bunch of different 2010 zins these days. I’m sure some of them will age, but I find a lot of bottle variation unless it is simply that the wines are changing(aging) fast. There is often a nice core of rich fruit, but they also have some very hard edges. My strategy will be to not age these wines although some will likely still be round when 2020 rolls around.