@Brad_Baker - on IG, Michael Cruse said that 2013 was a “difficult” vintage for them, and he prefers more classic years like 2016 and 2017.
Go figure.
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I was a buyer from the start,
but honestly I can’t remember the conversation in detail.
Wasn’t the whole project seen as kind of an experiment back then?
Interesting that I remember it as more of a crapshoot back then and come a decade later it’s totally flipped.
Time to start popping some OG to feel some love.
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2020 Heintz Rose.
Some hints of jalepeno on the nose but otherwise pretty muted. The bottle had been open a while when i got around to it. The mouthfeel was fairly minerally with some underripe strawberry and raspberry pushing through. The bead was refined. There was a slight vegetal note on the finish and for me that really threw off the balance. I’m a bit tolerant of funky flavors in my wine as they can add interest to the experience and this was fine for me in that way. In the end, my verdict was, I didn’t hate it. It was OK but not really built for drinking now. If I had this, I would hold for 1-2 years to see if it integrates. Not a total write off but needs improvement and certainly not a toss down the drain candidate.
@Sam_Kwak brought this to an offline last night for scientific purposes. To be fair, I tried this after some 2012 CDC and 2013 Cristal.
The 2020 Heintz Rosé is 58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay. It has more fruit of the other wines; plenty of strawberries and crushed raspberries with some slight autolytic notes of freshly baked croissant and butter cookies. The acid is there but the wine is quite textural too, with a finish of key lime pie. We dosed this at 6 g/L.
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Nice! Glad you dug it! I bet there’s more than a few peeps around here that would sell you theirs for a helluva deal 
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I’m happy to taste taste any as a continued Public Service. Send em on over.
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FWIW, I had decanted that bottle for about 6 hours before bringing it over. So not quite the 24 hours that Will Kelley prescribed. Agree with your assessment, it would be a serviceable sparkler if not for that weird asparagus note on the back end.
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Adding a third vote, I think Sam’s decanting helped, but green was still there and did not enjoy.
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Drinkin the 18 BdN day two…nice Krugishness…thought it might be advancing too quickly, but found plenty bright citrus sours and energized zip to go along with the nuanced Apple butter sauté…cherry skins, pillow soft Marsala crème mousse…ginger snap spice. No decline day two…really nice bottle!
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UM magnum offer is out.
I clicked unsubscribe.
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I have no horse (or bottles) in this race, but I’m curious about what seems to be causing this issue - do people think its an issue with the grapes being sourced now or is it some winemaking decision?
It’s not at all clear.
That said, given the consistency across bottlings of the weird aromas/flavors I still suspect something amiss with the dosage.
I was planning on being done with Ultramarine (or at least being done if the 2020s are as horrible as most people say, especially as I’ve already had some disappointing-to bad bottles from them), but I just got an offer for the late disgorged 2018 Heintz Rose. I loved the regular disgorged version. Does anyone think it could’ve gotten significantly worse with a few more years on the lees? I normally would think more lees time would generally make this wine better, but I’ve lost confidence with UM.
I also received the offer and I decided to hedge my bet and only order half of the bottles I was allocated. I’m curious to hear other responses that have more experience with UM Late Disgorgement. I purchased the 2017 but haven’t opened 1 yet, which is the main reason I decided not to purchase my full allocation.
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I haven’t decided if I’m upset that I didn’t get an email on this offer.
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I ordered last week and received the following allocation and purchased the whole lot:
(1) 2018 Hirsch Vineyard Rose Magnum
(4) 2018 Heintz Rose Late Disgorged
(1) 2019 Charles Heintz Vineyard BdB Magnum
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I got the offer but I am done at this point. Even if it’s great, I am trying to cut back on buying, so given the recent issues it’s an easy one to pass on.
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I popped the 2014 Heintz BdB LD in March of last year (on accident) and actually liked it significantly less than the original release, which really suprised me. That’s the only one I’ve opened so far so take the below note with a grain of salt 
Meant to grab the original release but snagged the late disgorged on accident. Oops. Not sure what to think about this one. The first couple days were pretty tight and I was getting quite a bit of the dreaded ‘cider’ notes, which is the first time I’ve experienced this with an Ultramarine. The third day was better, but it still tasted less fresh than the other bdb’s I’ve opened…but this is the first late disgorded that I’ve opened so I don’t really have a benchmark. Maybe I just prefer the original release bottles??
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I seem to always read this from the winery notes as well, which is why I stopped paying the extra freight. Just not what I’m looking for in my typical sparkling wine.
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