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….
Hardy was in town doing a tasting, and there was no way I was gonna miss if I could help it.
2022 Full King Crab II
A touch shy on on the nose and slightly hazy in colour. On the palate: gentian, pink grapefruit zest. Full bodied and incisive. A really textural and fun wine to drink.
2022 Summer Salters Rose
White strawberries, freesias, citrus. Assertive on entry with a nice tannic grip on the mid-palate and bright high acid finish. The whole wine felt kinda like someone started messing around with the reverb dial on the mixer.
2021 Grenache Brosseau Vineyard
Light in structure. Fine grained tannins. Straddling the line between red and black fruit. I’m not the biggest Grenache fan, but this was really enjoyable.
2021 Five Points Red
featuring an intro by Emeril Lagasse: BAM. Intense and in your face the minute your nose is remotely close to the glass. Brambly fruit. Rich and lively at the time time. This is just another reminder of how fun filled these wines can get.
2020 Chendawg II
Big whiff of reduction. Tense. Great. Apparently this sat around in barrel for a while. Fuck this is good. Reductive and slightly oxidative. Kinda reminiscent of some Jura whites. Salted river stones, calamansi, flint. Just pure deliciousness and man, what an extensive mid-palate. I need more of this in my life.
Opened the king crab II for dinner last night. Paired of course with king crab itself. Delicious pairing that kept giving the more time and air the wine received. The nose seemed a bit muted, but I think it just needs more bottle time to come around. Wine was much better on day two.
Overall a great wine that I could drink everyday.
First time I’ve ever seen any of Hardy’s wines on a restaurant wine list. Big shout out to @H_Wallace_Jr for being on Boia De’s wine list. This is a Michelin star restaurant two years in a row here in Miami. My wife and I frequent this place at least once a month and this is the first time I’ve seen these wines on the list. Looks like they messed up some of the spelling, but still a major accomplishment in my eyes. Congratulations!
Double decant +1 hour. Another EWCY! surprise. When first opened the wine gave off an overwhelming scent of green apples. I thought, well, this will be very enjoyable, if straightforward. Post decant this was completely different : the green apple was largely gone, folded under muted but very complex citrus, along with an edge of stalky bitterness and some granite minerality.
At first I was like: what the heck is this? Not in a bad way - more a genuinely confused way. The citrus notes are so quiet - this is a much better descriptor than “reticent” in this case, for this is a quiet wine, not an ungenerous one - that the only comparison I can think of comes out of making Joel Robuchon’s recipe for roast duck. Sorry for the particularity of the description but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. The sauce in his recipe revolves around blanched zest of lemon, orange and grapefruit together - if you’ve ever made this you’ll know it’s a unique scent and flavor.
The weird, slightly cloudy appearance just adds to the appeal once you’ve just given up trying to make sense of it and….just go with it. As much as I was on the fence about this when we had an early taste by itself, it just went fabulously with sole meunière. I think it would go even better with seafood: crab, mussels maybe.
I hesitate to call wines unique but…… this is unique. It’s almost ambient music - think Laraaji - Day of Radience ( my fave of the 4 canonical Brian Eno ambient albums). You can use it as background music or you can really pay attention, fall into a trance, and see what you come out as on the other side.
2022 Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! Marvelous Mourvedre - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County (6/30/2023)
Well this umm…marvelous! When I first opened it there was boisterous red fruit and fresh herbs. Then on the palate there was a funky, earthy bass note. It was easy to drink but also compelling to ponder, like a meaningful passage in a great book. Due to non-wine obligations the last glass plus was left for a couple of days later. It transformed into the library room of a very old house, but with a Jackson Pollock on one wall, the riotous color and random strokes contrasting with the old wood and leather of the rest of the room. Fun juxtaposed with seriousness - crazy with formal. The new world grape expression contrasted with the old world root of Mourvèdre. Hardly shocking that a Hardy Wallace Mourvèdre would manage to straddle the old and new, in fact I expect it.
