2022 Marvelous Mourvèdre. From CT review:
1 hr decant. Oh, where to begin? Well, first of all, if you’re me, forget all you assume you know about Mourvèdre. This does have some aspects of southern Rhone Mourvèdre— brambly fruit, tons of dried herbes de Provence, some gravel. But it has little of the heavier notes of old world Mourvèdre. There is very little plum or meaty notes. There is initially a candied fruit aspect to this that convinced me there was some Grenache in this - but no.
What starts to leap out at you after a few sips is the wild rose water and raspberry elements to this, along with completely unexpected cut grass and violets. All of this is propelled by what I now consider EWCY!’s signature profile — a gossamer lift, California-girl natural prettiness, and a limpidness that I would never expect from a Mourvèdre. There is a stern granite edge to the finish which is in another wine might be a fault, but here gives a little contour that is welcome after so much damn prettiness.
No one would ever mistake this for a southern Rhône. I would not expect a CA Mourvèdre to have this degree of balletic ethereal grace. Like ballet, which looks airborne but is firmly planted on the ground (ask any dancer) my image of this wine turned to living, growing plants - a rose bush somehow soaked in raspberry.
Since Hardy has developed a well- earned reputation as a gifted assembleur or mixer of wines, it’s easy to try to limit him that way. Uh, no. This is 85% single variety so it’s not some wacky concoction that makes this wine great. EWCY is not just making off the wall mixes. They are making great wines, period. This had the same transcendental feel to it that some of the more esoteric blends did. I asked my wife which of the 3 EWCY! wines we have had so far is her favorite. She picked this one. Me too, and I didn’t want to bias her. Just unassumingly gorgeous, kinda like my wife….
Score : 94. Relative to expectations: +++