Yeah, I added a couple of extra of the grenache blanc…that just sounded so damn good.
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Popped the 23 Evangelho Carignane last night and it was a bigger, more backward version of the 22 OV. needs time, but a ton of stuffing!
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Thanks to everyone on all the 2026 Winter Release support - especially coming right off of BD17 
Thank you! The 24 Evangelho Carignane is nuts. It is more forward / approachable than the 23 yet has all the stuffing. You are going to dig dig dig it.
Thank you. I have about 6 cases of this stashed away and may need to include this in a library offer later this year.
Thank you Psyched for you to try the wines!
Thank you. It is delightful and that perfect balance between super fun and OMG.
A little bit on the 4 wines of the Winter Release
2024 Garden Gnome Grenache Blanc
12% ABV
Sonoma Valley (Kenwood)
1992 planted, own-rooted, dry farmed, no spray. Grafted from Primitivo 4 years ago
Fermented and aged in 1 Concrete egg.
I LOVE this wine. Note: It has a lot of sediment- Racking the egg clean is hard and we chose not to filter to keep the mouthfeel (which is magical). Stand it up before serving or swirl the Sea Monkeys in.
2024 Mariana’s Vineyard Chardonnay
13.2% ABV
Santa Cruz Mountains
Fermented in steel (through ML) and racked into 10-12 year old barrels for aging.
F***! If you dug the 2023, the 2024 is even better. I hate to make EU comparisons, but here one comes… If the 23 was Mersault in profile, this is more 1er Cru Chablis. It is a tad leaner and has more acid. A little more reduction (the fancy kind) on the nose.
2024 Evangelho OV Carignane
13% ABV
100% Whole Cluster
As mentioned above, this picks up where the 23 left off. More forward in deep raspberry, thyme, mineral space. Great stuffing. Pure pleasure wine that will go the distance.
2024 Shake Ridge Ranch Mourvèdre
12.75% ABV
Sierra Foothills
100% Whole Cluster
This is the most elegant of the Shake Mourvèdre wines I’ve made. Though purely “us” it leans fine-dining vs backyard BBQ. It is exquisite, everything in balance, tannins perfect (fine-grain plentiful / supportive vs obtrusive). This and the Chard feel like trophy wines.
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• 2022 Santa Cruz M-CF Mariana’s Vineyard.
Had a few days ago, but forgot to post this. I have nothing to add to @Keith_Levenberg ‘s spot on review from May. “Calming” is his perfect descriptor for this wine. Smooth, suave, gentle, just great, and great now.
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• 2022 Marvelous Mourvèdre
This was nothing short of spectacular, even better than the first time I tried it. It’s maturing into an elegance that I didn’t suspect was going to be there.
From CT review:
Second pass at this wine and even better second time around. Fabulous raspberry/red currant fruit, rose and violet florals, along with a new juniper berry note that just added an even greater level of complexity. The youthful acidic lift has developed into an unbelievable weightlessness. Wow.
Score: 95. Relative to expectations: +++
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In December celebrated the wife’s birthday at a favorite restaurant, Diavola in Geyserville with the Extradimensional 2023 Mariana’s Cabernet Franc, simply a monumental wine.
Curiosity got the best of me so last night we ordered that same Rib Eye for two and popped open the Extradimensional 2023 Mariana’s Merlot. Luscious is not a word I often use but that best describes the wine. Like the Cab Franc just a baby but oh so so good!
Bonus, tasted through the latest Extradimensional release at pick up last week. Run, don’t walk and order the Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc and Mourvèdre from Shake Ridge, all were awesome!
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Grenache Blanc is sold out.
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That Merlot is haunting me. Excited to pop some cab franc soon and can’t wait to try some garden gnome by the pool this summer!
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21 Mystery Train, yowza, just a really great bottle that turned my spirits around after drain pouring two bottles in a row that I’d been really excited about.
Real note TK, allegedly.
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This might be the best Hardy wine from Evangelho since the 2018 D&R Mourvèdre. Still processing.
Norman, Norman, coordinate.
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Ooh love to hear that. I grabbed a couple of these. Enjoyable now or let them rest a bit?
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YEAH! (To both)
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Nice note David! Talking to Hardy I think he mentioned the three wines he had Jancis taste when she visited the tasting room were that 2024 Evangelho, 2023 Cabernet Franc Mariana’s Vineyard and 2023 Heart and Hummingbird wine.
Each is unique complex and joyous all in one!
Tom
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Speaking of, Chambers just offered some D&R Evangelho’s for anyone looking
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Thank you David, Tom, JustinP, Branson, JohnMag and all for the kind words on the wines.
The new wines and BD wine should be arriving to everyone shortly - The winter release wines (Garden Gnome GBlanc, Evangelho Carignane, Shake Ridge Mourvèdre, and Mariana’s Chard) are in a groove and people who’ve tried them already are digging them. I have my “favorite” of this release … but it switches each time I open one of the wines.
PS- FlatironSF just posted 2023 Mariana’s Merlot and let’s say their math may be way off… Grab what you can!
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We had an incredible experience yesterday tasting with @H_Wallace_Jr through his current lineup in downtown Sonoma, and I’m still trying to fully process how truly special these wines are. This should be no surprise to anyone tracking this thread, but these wines are lightning in a bottle. Every. Single. Wine. They were so impressive that my wife, not a huge wine drinker (but has a much better palate than myself), signed up for the wine club on her own accord, making this her first wine club.
While the wines were nothing short of exceptional, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention how much fun we had chatting with Hardy throughout the afternoon. While it’s great to taste great wines like these, meeting people like Hardy is what makes these experiences so special for us. We also had fun special guest appearances from his daughter, who gave us the hard-sell on the pizza pop-up across the street (and deserves some commission for her efforts), and Hardy’s wife swung by later in the afternoon to drop off one of these pizzas (looked incredible).
We tasted through a ton of incredible wines yesterday, which led to many a few standouts (and some very tough purchasing decisions). My personal favorites:
- 2023 Mariana’s Merlot - Magic in a glass. This was pure, fresh, bright, herbaceous, a truly special wine. I’m kicking myself that I am just now seeing Hardy’s above message on Flatiron and didn’t buy more. Gladly we did take one of these home (although I want more).
- 2023 Mariana’s Cab Franc - I am not a big cab franc fan, but this was stunningly beautiful. The aromatic complexity was dialed up to the max, and the flavors were incredibly balanced and elegant. This followed the Merlot, which is an impossible act to follow, but it more than held its own.
- 2024 Evangelho Mourvedre and the 2024 Evangelho Carignan - I remembered reading @David_Bu3ker 's note on the Mourvedre earlier this week, and was psyched to see this on the lineup. Both of these wines have this incredible pureness of fruit, are concentrated, yet are incredibly lifted. While Evangelho is an incredible site, I think both of these wines really speak to Hardy’s talents as a winemaker to get the fullest expression of these wines. I can’t pick a favorite between these two, they are both unique and special wines.
- 2023 Brosseau Grenache, 2023 Brosseau Pinot Noir and the 2023 Brosseau Syrah. Freshness and precision are the words that come to mind when thinking through these wines. Hardy explained that this is the only site in the world that contains this specific combination of 3 different soils (volcanic, slate, and one other I’m blanking on - help me out please), and contributes to the unique character of these wines.
- The Grenache was fresh and vibrant, not at all overt like I’ve come to expect from the varietal. Hardy lamented that the Grenache tends to take longer ripen than the other varietals there, requiring multiple 3.5 hour trips to the vineyard, but I can attest that the efforts are more than worth it - my wife’s favorite red of the day
- The Pinot Noir was stunningly beautiful and pure, I think the slate and volcanic-characteristics of this terroir were most prominent to me with this wine - my second favorite of wine of the day
- The Syrah was gorgeous - it reminded me of the few Cote Roties I’ve had in terms of elegance and savory qualities, but again, not overt nor overripe like a lot of CA Syrah I’ve had.
- 2024 Sonoma Valley UFO - Short for Unidentified Fermented Objected. What started as a coferment of 2 rows of Grenache Blanc and Primitivo was later blended with some Semillon and SB to give the wine a bit more roundness. The result is nothing short of extraordinary. My wife’s favorite of the tasting.
Reading back through this, I think my “standouts” are actually just everything that we tasted through yesterday lol. It’s rare to go through someone’s whole portfolio and every single wine is an absolute banger. This was like listening to an album for the first time where every song is better than the last, and you quickly realize that you now have a new favorite album.
Thanks again for having us Hardy, this is an incredibly special experience for us.
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Fantastic write up for some fantastic wines! I feel like I lived this exact moment about 6 months ago. All it took was one chance to taste through some of his lineup and the lightbulb clicked 
Fresh, energetic, complex, and dare I say… NATTY LUXE?!
I popped on to flatiron lookin for some of that Merlot yesterday but didn’t see any. Did it sell out already?! I’m willing to double down and go deeper on that bottle if I can. It’s mind bending stuff.
It’s really hard to pick favorites but I think my favorites from what you tasted through are of course the Marianas Merlot and Cab franc, and the Sonoma Valley UFO. I feel like Hardy’s wine making lends itself really well to these interesting white blends. It’s got me excited to try to new Garden Gnome Grenache Blanc.
Speaking on the Mariana’s Bordeaux varietals… maybe they really suit my tastes but to me, they are seriously some of the most standout Bordeaux varietals I have tried from California. They are so far from your cookie cutter valley floor Cabernet. They have such a clear identity and they’re sooo sooo good. Excited to follow along with these ones over the coming years.
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2019 After Midnight Light Red
Red cherries, orange creamsicle, ripe banana and a whiff of white pepper.
Bright and chewy red cherry, watermelon, strawberry then turns more toward black cherry creamy texture with medium- weight. Red cherry jolly rancher, raspberry and chalk frame the finish.
2020 Evangelho Old Vine Mourvèdre
Booming dark berry and aromatics, blackberry pie, violets and roses.
Generous ripe fruit, blackberry, olallieberry, lifted by acidity and amplified by whole cluster? Very chewy right through the finish. Delicious but I’ll hold. few years before opening my next one.
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@C_Putnam Thanks so much for coming in with your wife and friends. That was such a fun afternoon! It was a blast to geek out w/ you all. We look forward to your next visit.
Thank you @Branson_G_Ropp ! I look forward to your next visit!
Yeah!!! The bright one!!! Thank you!
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I strongly advise all lovers of Yeah! Wines to go look at Flatiron SF now! (as Hardy referenced above)
I’m in for a another case of Mariana’s wines
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