Thanks Chris, love these write ups. Order in…now we wait 4 months ![[whistle.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/87d24eb81ec6dc01d84f3d6c19fa9a357e90218e.gif "whistle"){kind=small}
Sounds like an interesting and enticing collection of sparklers.
Production must be up! BIG allocation came my way, no where near what I can afford.
I went for a 2 - 2 - 2 approach! Wish I could afford to take more Morgan/Chris, but my wedding this past year has me on a tight budget!!
Can’t wait to crack one of these in the fall. Awesome awesome awesome lineup.
Same here Michael! Would LOVE to snag my full allocation…but that’s sadly not in the cards.
Probably going with the 2 x 3 approach as well, which is kinda what I was expecting in terms of allocations based on the previous 2 years.
2 x 2013 Alder Springs Pinot Noir Rosé
I think today is the last day to hop on the wagon for orders…
Was happy I was able to get an allocation. I just went with a small 2-2 allocation of the rose and Blanc de Noir wines.
I always buy these wines!
~$50/bot all in with shipping. I passed. I wish all the best to Chris & Morgan but I can get multiple grower Champagnes of both Chard- or Pinot Noir- heavy blends for $35-45. I’ll stick with the devil I know.
Got notice on Monday that these are on the way to Chicago. Very excited!!
Looking forward to it. Mine is arriving today, but I do wish they had waited to ship until after it cooled down below the mid 80s.
Hate to bring it up, but I said the same thing. I was surprised they didn’t wait a week or two to be extra sure. It’s cooled down in Chicago today but it was pushing 70/80 most of the week until today.
Regardless, excited to receive the wines!
I just received my Under the Wire 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé.
Any advice on when to drink it? Do I need to decant it?
Save the date: May 23rd.
In!
very interested, especially in the hirsch rose. wonder what pricing will look like though.
Everything was $45 to $50 a bottle last release as I remember.
To avoid confusion upthread this release will include:
Wentzel Vineyard Pinot Noir (Rose? BDN?)
Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir (Rose)
Brosseau Vineyard Chardonnay
Bedrock Vineyard Zinfandel
today is the day! anyone see the email yet?
Hey Everyone- We are running into a bit of a Mail Server issue we are trying to solve. Hopefully will be out before 11 AM here on the west coast. For the time being here is the release newsletter!
THE NITTY-GRITTY
Wine will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. Unfortunately due miniscule production volumes and lack of ordering history we cannot guarantee allocations. Please use the wish list function if you would like more of a particular wine- we have done our best to make sure everyone is offered wine.
There is $25 pro-rated Ground shipping on orders of 6 bottles or more.
Orders will ship when the weather across the shipping route is acceptable. If you would like to receive the wines sooner then this please email us. If you have any specific instructions or questions, please put them in the Comments section on your order or email info@under-the-wire.com.
Pick-Up day will be June 24 from 12-5pm at 19320 Orange Ave Sonoma, CA. As always, we will be pouring some wines, including previews of the upcoming Bedrock Fall release.
To go straight to ordering, click here.
Release letter.
“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” George Patton
Morgan and I started Under the Wire to explore California’s diverse climates and vineyards through the lens of sparkling wine. We wanted to bring the small production, vineyard-focused ethos of grower Champagne to a state where, until recently, sparkling wine production was the game of larger brands that were oftentimes extensions of even larger French champagne producers. In the five years since our first vintage we have learned the many challenges associated with making wine with fizz and froth. We have also learned, like most things in California, there is a deep history of making sparkling wine that dates all the back to the 1860s.
Fruit:
It seems pretty obvious that if one is going to make terroir driven sparkling wines that vineyard selection is pretty important. We considered, and continue to consider, many sites and varieties for sparkling wine. For growers, listening to our cock-eyed scheme, there was both some skepticism and cautious excitement. Why take a chance on us, besides our good looks and charm? When we first heard back from the iconic David Hirsch, his response was “I have been thinking of making some bubbly here…. The problem is that our fruit is very expensive and we don’t have much.” Thankfully he, along with a few other perfectionist growers, willingly dove in with us.
What we have found is the growers who have partnered with tend to thrive on the edges of viticultural conformity. Whether deep in redwood forests (Wentzel), perched high above the Pacific ocean (Hirsch), in the flight path of Condors (Brosseau) or regularly battling bear damage and rogue cannabis growers (Alder Springs), those who farm for Under the Wire have carved something unique. Even Bedrock Vineyard in Sonoma Valley was one of the first vineyards planted in a place previously untouched by European vinifera vines, even if it was in the 1850s. We like to think they recognize our shared passion for choosing the harder path and embracing the unexplored.
Picking:
Getting great fruit leads to the next challenge: when to pick the grapes. Sparkling wines demand even more precision when it comes to picking. To induce the in-bottle secondary fermentation that produces all of those lovely bubbles the grapes must be perfectly ripe, but not too ripe. If picked too late the extra sugar will lead to a higher alcohol in the base wine/vin Claire. This creates too stressful of an atmosphere (pun intended!) for the yeast responsible for the secondary fermentation to complete their work- leading to a semi-sweet mess virtually impossible to correct. It for this reason that larger commercial producers of sparkling wine tend to pick, in our opinion, too early. We want to maximum flavor intensity and vineyard character in the final wines, but we are always flirting with the limit to achieve this. Although many people guess our name comes from the wire cage over our corks, it mainly comes from these rather agonizing picking decisions. Luckily we have not messed anything up yet!
The Costs:
Ah, the real reason why so few people have dove into true methode champenoise winemaking in California. Not only does sparkling wine require a bunch of special equipment but it also requires double the effort from a smaller fraction of wine. Outside of picking time, pressing is THE most important part of making sparkling wine. At pressing, in order to preserve good acidity and pH we tend to only take the first 100-110 gallons of juice that comes per ton of grapes. The last 50-60 gallons of more heavily pressed grapes are usually unusable for sparkling wine as the potassium from the stems begins to buffer up the pH and lower the acidity while the heavier pressure also begins to extract too much tannin from the skins. Since we are purposefully working with sites that produce pretty tiny and intensely flavored clusters our press fractions can make our accountant need whiskey instead of wine.
On top of this, there is a whole other fermentation that takes place in the bottle. Even though we have done this for a few years now it still boggles our minds that every bottle of Under the Wire is a separate secondary fermentation that finishes in a uniform manner. Needless to say, our respect for something like Dom Perignon, where they make tens of thousands of cases of beautiful and uniform champagne, has only increased since the outset of this adventure.
And a little history:
When we first decided to make sparkling Zinfandel we thought it both an interesting experiment and a somewhat comical opportunity to see Joel Peterson’s reaction to us taking prized old-vine Bedrock fruit and picking it for sparkling wine. However, with some more digging we found some cool historic reasons for making the wine (outside of it being pretty delicious!). The father of California sparkling wine, Arpad Harazsthy, loved Zinfandel for sparkling wine. His “Eclipse,” which first won the highest honor for American wine at the 1867 Paris Exhibition and later would win medals across the U.S. and Europe was composed primarily of the variety. The grapes for that wine came from Buena Vista Vineyards, located a few miles to the south of Bedrock Vineyard, so it feels historically proper to continue this Sonoma Valley tradition.
We can’t thank you enough for the words of support (and dollars of encouragement) over the past five years. After five harvests, we feel more confident than ever that Arpad Harazthy’s dream of California sparkling wine standing tall next to the OG gangsters of Champagne can actually be achieved. With this lineup of wines, our most geographically diverse release yet, we feel the challenges encountered have been well worth the exhilarations of victory that are in the bottles we offer you today.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out.
Cheers!
Chris and Morgan
Wines
2013 Brosseau Vineyard Chardonnay, Chalone AVA $45
Brosseau Vineyard is located at 1800’ elevation in the Gabilan Mountains. Planted in the shadows of Pinnacles National park the vineyard is a twisting and steep drive from the town of Soledad. The own-rooted vines were planted in 1980 on a sexy mix of limestone and granite. This is maybe the most distinctive site we work with. The wine invariably has a savory nose of chilli pepper, laurel bay and pink peppercorn. This wine truly smells of its place as peppercorn and bay trees line the road to the vineyard. Thanks to the limestone in the soils, the natural weight of the wine is balanced with plenty of stone fruit acidity. This wine will benefit from some time in the cellar. If opening soon, we recommend opening the bottle a couple hours before drinking it. Just pop the cork and put it in your fridge. The bubbles will still be there when you return but the wines aromatics and texture will bloom.
2013 Bedrock Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley AVA $45
“The best, in the opinion of Arpad Harazsthy, whose judgment in this matter is entitled to much weight, is Zinfandel” Published March 1869 in The Alta California in reference to Arpad Harazsthy’s favorite grape for sparkling wine.
When picked at sparkling wine levels of ripeness (around 19 brix or potential alcohol of 10.8%)the fruit from the ancient Zinfandel vines at Bedrock has almost identical numbers to more “traditional” sparkling varieties. Just like with Pinot, the pressing of these grapes is critical and particularly gentle rendering a wine with the slightest shade of pink. The color of the Zinfandel in 2013 is a actually a bit lighter then both the Wentzel and Hirsch rose wines in this offer. Fermented in a combination of neutral oak and stainless steel barrels with its native yeast, the wine spent 6 months in barrel before going down for secondary fermentation in bottle. We disgorged this wine in January of 2016 with 4 grams of dosage. The delicateness of the color continues on the nose and palate. The Bedrock Vineyard signature note of orange rind is apparent along with a touch of Sonoma Valley structure and orange bitters. This is a wine that surprises many with its dryness and freshness and, revisits the history of the early years of California’s sparkling winemaking tradition.
2014 Wentzel Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley $48
Wentzel Vineyard is planted at around 900’ on a ridge above the town of Philo. Surrounded by coastal chaparral and redwood trees, the steep slopes produce tiny clusters of intensely flavored Pinot Noir. Like with all the vineyards we work with, depth of flavor at low sugars is key and, Wentzel has this in spades. The site produced a stunning wine that truly tastes of the Anderson Valley. Intense minerality, cracked red fruits and wild herb aromatics go along with red apple and quince fruit. The color is just past bronze, not quite a white wine, not quite a rose. To us, the color brings to mind Ulysse Collin Les Maillons bottling. This wine will age and the finish has the structure of an ancient Japanese temple.
2014 Hirsch Sparkling Pinot Noir Rose Sonoma Coast $75
Our first release from this iconic vineyard. Just a few miles from the ocean, this is the real Sonoma Coast. Planted at 1500’, Hirsch is a vineyard of extremes. The drive alone is one that has turned many of our tires into useless pieces of rubber. With a couple tons of fruit on the truck heading down the 18% grade road, we have definitely removed our seatbelts just in case bailing out due to faulty brakes was necessary. The vineyard itself sees an incredible 80” average of rain during the winter. During the growing season it can get warm but has a heavy fog influence in the morning and late afternoon. Whether it is driving to the vineyard, trying to find cell service to call a tow truck (there isn’t any) or growing grapes, nothing is easy on the true Sonoma Coast. However, the wines are stunning. Our first vintage working with the vineyard was 2013 but we decided to release the 2014 first as it is more quickly showing the explosive perfume and character we adore from the site. This is a delicately colored rose´, a style we feel best expresses the beautifully delineated and focused flavors of the site. We foot stomped the grapes and let them soak for a couple hours prior to pressing. The Vin Claire was fermented with native yeasts in neutral oak barrels. The wine was put down for secondary fermentation after six months in barrel and disgorged in May of 2017 with 2 grams of dosage. When we tasted the wine the night before this release, the immediate reaction we both had was “this smells like the true Sonoma Coast.” What does that mean? Well, there is a wild raspberry bush just as you turn off Meyers Grade on the way to the vineyard. Go there and pick a few of the raspberries while feeling the first rays of sun and smelling the last wisps of ocean fog. Maybe be a little sleep deprived from falling in love. That is Hirsch.
Live!
Not sure if it’s an error or not but I’m being charged sales tax on my order, not something I typically see ordering from CA since I live in MN
I’m trying to swear off buying any wine the rest of the year, but couldn’t pass on the Wentzel and the Hirsch. And the other ones. UTW remains a unique expression of California terroir.