I see Bedrock as a family thing: it is a matter of family trajectory. I have always been fond of Ravenswood single vineyard zins. I always found it odd that RP loved Joel’s wines…until he made them all of the popular rage and Ravenswood became a major financial success.
So often you see wineries that start out making commercial swill to get rich, and then they turn around and make high end wines to garner respect and for bragging rights. Ravenswood achieved their acclaim, really for all of Zinfandel single vineyard wines generally. They and Ridge made it what is is today! Then, both achieved financial success, and for whatever reason RP lost his affection for Joel’s wines. My opinion, Joel’s single vineyards didn’t change.
Morgan was raised in the winery and driving around visiting vineyard sites. Sure, it was a much larger richer life than that! But, having those experiences didn’t suck…and he probably knows more about vineyard sites and field blends than most! And, if I gauge the love a father can have for a son in a fine man like Joel: he would like nothing more than to have his son take it to the next level, and love watching his son eclipse what he has done!
As mentioned above, there is a solid history in winemaking related to field blends that hadn’t evolved to these heights in CA until the likes of Ridge, Bedrock, Carlisle, Turley… Now let it be the new rage not as a matter of fate, but from talented painstaking work in the vineyards.
I think there is a huge amount of justification for mutual pride in the Peterson family!
BTW, these wines do age and infanticide doesn’t necessarily reflect the true merit of these wines!
Well…at one time it was the 4 R’s: Ridge/Ravenswood/Rosenblum/Renwood. Renwood was dropped
even longer ago.
Haven’t had a Rosenblum in a number of yrs now, but I like what Kent & Shauna are doing at RockWall.
Every time I fly into/out of OAK, and look down at that bldg on the east side of Alameda NAS w/ its crenilated roof,
I shed a tear or two. Fond memories of some very good times spent in that bldg. Especially when Georg had the
still fired up.
Tom
IIRC Rabbit Ridge was in there somewhere also. Then they ran afoul of the law a couple of times and relocated to the Central Coast. Haven’t tried one of theirs for many a moon either.
I had a Lorenzo Heirloom recently and have to say I was really impressed with how it has evolved with some bottle age (compared to one that I tried shortly after release). Really nice vineyard driven terroir. Well done!
Not sure if RabbitRidge was really ever considered as up to the level of the 3 (or 4) R’s. But he did do some nice/well-priced Zins in his day during
his run up in Healdsburg. EricRussell was run out of town (sort of) for building on his property w/o the required permits. He was associated in some way w/
SuzySelbyWines in Healdsburg, who appears to still be in business but you never hear anything about her wines.
Eric picked up stakes and moved down to PasoRobles and established the four RussellFamily vnyds. Still makes wines under the RabbitRidge label,
but you never hear much about them and I haven’t had them in yrs, though I have had some wines from grapes grown on his vnyd.
Tom
I see Bedrock as a family thing: it is a matter of family trajectory. I have always been fond of Ravenswood single vineyard zins. I always found it odd that RP loved Joel’s wines…until he made them all of the popular rage and Ravenswood became a major financial success.