In UM defense, that’s how you highlight terroir over a house style 
Totally get that! But fyi, i believe most offerings do have dosage, albeit somewhat minimal. You mentioned purchasing 2017 and 2018, and the Heintz BdB from both vintages was 2G/L.
Doesn’t really matter since you don’t dig the wines anyway but figured I’d mention it 
A uniquely low bar for a positive experience. I envy your cheery outlook.
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Tried UM for the first time last night. 19’ BdB Heintz. Really interesting wine. More interesting than delicious perhaps, but was an enjoyable glass of wine. Jalapeno on the nose for sure. Several people couldn’t place it and had big “aha!” moments when that was suggested to them. There were other vegetal notes on the palate, but fruit and stone and bread back there too. I don’t think I’d spend a few hundred bucks for it, I just don’t have enough wine people over to the house who would enjoy the uniqueness of it. But was happy to try it and enjoyed it – though easy to see how a few more steps in the vegetal direction could be way overboard.
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Anyone attending the tasting in NYC next week? They are pouring the 21 vintage and a few library wines. I have to assume they won’t be pouring any 2020. Either way, I am going so see you there if you are attending.
Nice!! Im still out but thank you for this!
Now…who’s brave enough to open a Hirsch, ha!
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Someone just posted a note in CT on 2021 BdB. Green pepper and vinegar. Not promising.
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So far only the Heintz Rose is safe.
I opened a bottle of 2020 Rose Sonoma Coast disgorged in 2024. Simply not a pleasant experience. Hard to describe but not “smoky.” Acidic, very mild nose, harsh mouth feel, did not improve over night. I hesitate to write harsh reviews, and I would try the wines again down the road, but felt compelled to let others know.
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Popped one last night. Searched the forum for oyster. It tastes EXACTLY like oysters on opening, like weirdly so.
2020 Heintz Rose disgorged 11/19/24
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Opened a 2019 for NYE and the hype/bad news was spot on. This was not an enjoyable glass of sparkling and absolutely is a variant to all the other UM that I have had since the 2014’s. Very off vegetal, old basement, funkyness. Not Bret or VA, but just old, dungy, veggy funk. Way off the mark for UM’s I’ve had in the past. Have (2) 2019’s and (3) 2020’s left 
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For 2020? Hell no they are not. 2021 I think we only have one example, and some say 2020’s are clean so… Need more examples.
Anyway, not that it makes any difference but this brand is completely dead to me (and hopefully many others too), the way they handled this 2020 fiasco was textbook PR suicide.
I mean, let’s face it. It’s clear something went wrong with their fermentation. The wines are undrinkable, yet they play this BS game of “it’s the vintage” when you ask them what’s going on. Not once have they said maybe we f’d up and this is not a wine that’s up to our standards.
The fact that MC released that wine shows what his ethics and morals are.
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Wife desperately wanted an Ultramarine for NYE but all I had on hand without a drive to the offsite was a 2020 Hirsch Rose.
I warned her what you all have experienced but she wanted to try anyways. I grabbed a backup sparkler and threw them both in the fridge the night before.
All I can say is that the 2020 UM Hirsch Rose is one of the worst wines I’ve ever had.
It started poor and only got worse with air. It was a very strong horseradish taste. It was almost like someone took dry apple cider and swished it in a mostly empty jar of horseradish and bottled it after adding a dropper of strawberry juice.
For science I put a stopper on it, threw it in the fridge and came back to it on NY Day evening. It was even worse.
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By the way, this is the problem when people call it “flawed” in CT. The wine actually has a 88 average score, but when you read the notes, over half of them are “flawed” so the score is very high compared to actual tasting notes.
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Which wine do you mean? The 2020 UM Hirsch Rose in phe previous post has a CT average of 74 and most people scored it. I can’t imagine anyone being misled by the notes or scores.
2020 Heintz. Such a polarizing wine, I wonder those who defensively rated it highly were actually enjoyed it or it’s just cope from sunking too much money into UM.
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It’s weird. The rose was actually good the first time I had it. 2nd bottle was wildly different. Cant explain it. Sold one of the bdb to a friend who I warned in advance. The other im honestly afraid to try. There’s enough other good sparkling wines out there that I don’t need to roll the dice on $100 bottles. But it is a sad state of affairs and hurts the wine industry as a whole to have someone out there selling great wine for a while and then popping out questionably horrible wine and not taking any responsibility for it. The next few years will be telling and I’ll just sit back and watch what people say for this price of entry.
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Ughhh, absolutley brutal. And i know we’re beating a dead horse here, but it’s flat out insulting that the winery won’t even acknowledge the issues, and instead lean on 'vintage variations '. Ridiculous.
P.s. @C_Wagner I hope your backup bottle was solid and it didnt put a damper on your NYE
The guy who gave it a 94 makes Suckling seem stingy with scores.
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