Rock Wall closed, a think was caused partly by pandemic affecting their on-premise activities, partly by the building they rented the old Naval base needing maintenance. I believe Shauna joined Lytton Springs as winemaker.
-Al
Same in my native Sweden. Very little good Zin make it there. The Zin BiB’s I have as an experiment in the summers when I go back to visit are always atrocious. Beyond atrocious, even (so much for the monopoly’s strive for quality like they always yammer on about). And the few bottled “higher end” ones that make it there are jam and chocolate monsters that are not good representations of terroir or variety.
But there is an interest amongst wine aficionados - I notice it. They know that there can be quality there, they just haven’t been able to get their hands on any. I think it could be a great market for good US Zins in the future, because when you think Zin you think US wines. It’s a USP we should be exploring more.
I just shipped off 70 cases of my new one to my Swedish importer, so we’ll see how that one fares at the monopoly. The previous one sold out pretty quick.
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My father recently passed away (miss you and love you, dad) and I decided to check out his wine.com account and I was surprised to see that he had purchased (2) 2014 Rosenblum Rockpile Road Zinfandels nearly 5 years ago. It was the first time I’ve heard of the producer and my father was the reason I enjoy wine as well.
His favorite varietal was Zinfandel and he always enjoyed Turley Wine Cellars (we managed to visit their Paso Robles) location a couple of years ago and had a really nice experience.
I think your dad and my dad were related - at least based on wine preferences (though my dad was also a huge Cab fan). My condolences.
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Thanks and my dad also enjoyed Cabernet Sauvignon (Pride Mountain Vineyards was his favorite winery) and he also liked the highly underrated varietal of Cabernet Franc.
We really are related!
I attended a wine dinner with Kent for Rock Wall wines about 10 years ago. Such a nice man, and very knowledgeable. He told the story that a large wine company offered to buy Rosenblum for a fair price, and he turned them down. They offered a lot more the next year, and he turned them down again. They came back a third time with a ridiculous offer, and he couldn’t say no.
With the non-compete and loss of all the contracts, he thought he was out of the business. But then he found that they didn’t want any of his grape contracts with growers, and he had a daughter who wanted to be in the business. All they wanted was a large label. He then worked for/with his daughter on Rock Wall and kept many of the contracts.
It was a fantastic night of food, Rock Wall wine, and stories. Also found out he was originally from just a few miles from where I grew up. These stories bring me back to that night, and the many Rosenblum and Rock Wall Zins I consumed over the years. I still love my Zins.
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Thomas Coyne who had a winery in one of the more historic sites in Livermore (Chateau Bellevue) started his winery at the Rosenblum cellars before moving it livermore. His wines were more restrained in style and it was one of my favorite Livermore wineries. Kent and Tom both were involved with Contra Costa Wine Group of home winemakers and a yearly meeting would often be at one of their wineries. I haven’t had much luck personally with aged Rosenblum wines but will still grab an older one if I see it for sale and the price is right.
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I also liked Thomas Coyne and his wines, recall he started in Rosenblum. He had a similar type of model (lots of different vineyards), but more with Bordeaux varieties and later Rhones.
Most of the Rosenblum Zins I bought were 1990s through 2002 vintage, tended to drink them young. They had a large number of vineyards across north and central CA, Harris Kratka was also my favorite consistently. I do think their style changed, not just bigger and riper but also emphasized plush forward fruit. Someone told me that they started adding some younger juice to the blend to get that fruity pop, but don’t know the details or whether it’s true. The Rockwall Zins were more like the later Rosenblum. They also made sparkling wine but all the ones I tried had a small amount of muscat in the mix, which is one grape that does not belong to my palate (I bought this when they were blowing out wine at Grocery Outlet after closing).
-Al