Bedrock Wine Co: Two Wines: Changing an Industry

By Taylor Cram

Bedrock Wine Co. is quickly becoming a very important, albeit, new producer from California.  Winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson has evolved from a 5 year old kid making Pinot Noir at his dad’s winery, Ravenswood, into a brilliant and hard working producer. He is not living under the iconic shadow his father casts across Sonoma rather he is making his own history. It looks like his shadow is going to be pretty big.  The following is Morgan’s mission statement:

Bedrock is an itsy-bitsy winery making wine in a converted chicken coop. Fruit from only the most excellent vineyard sites is hand pitch-forked into the destemmer, fermented in open top redwood and stainless vats using only native yeasts, and are manually basket pressed by winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson into the sexiest oak from the coldest French forests.

The winery’s objectives are:

• To channel the fruit of ancient vines into powerful, elegant, and distinctly Californian wines.
• To spread the gospel of Syrah in California by sourcing fruit from great terroirs throughout the North Coast.
• To proclaim the greatness of Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon by sparing no expense on wines of uniqueness and personality.
• To reclaim rose’ from the excesses of saignee and focus on precision, delicacy, aromatics, and food friendliness.
• To make fascinating and quixotic white wines from unique sites and interesting varietals.
• To make California Pinot Noir that ages as well as ’74 Swan.
• To dream big but keep production low!

As I have gotten more interested in west coast wines of the last few years, I have spent increasingly more time searching out new and progressive producers.  At times, my philosophies on small producers and balanced wines  make it difficult to get excited by the Cali wines readily available in the market. Finding both small producers and ones that value balance is difficult, surprisingly so.  I have become smitten with cool climate Syrah (which Morgan has covered in spades), defined and ‘burgundian’ Pinot Noir, and traditional Cabernet (but not necessarily Bordeaux-ish Cabernet).  I am getting into exploring more whites as well, but hampared by my prejudices towards Cali Chard, it is hard to find lots of Trousseau Gris or Ribolla Gialla. Thankfully, Morgan has no problems pushing the expectations and conventions of the Cali wine industry.  After having the Cuvee Caritas White last night, I loved reading what Morgan had to say on the importance of Graves Blanc blends.

Get the soapbox ready…

I am, year in and year out, both disappointed and bored with the quality of Sauvignon Blanc being made in the United States. It is not because the right terroir is lacking here; there are any number of wonderful spots for the grape. Rather it is lack of winemaking inspiration and money grubbing that is at fault. With the onset in popularity of the squeaky clean, dime a dozen, New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, many other wineries in the U.S. are trying to copy the Kiwi model. This means picking early, fermenting really cold in stainless steel to preserve aromatic esters, impeding ML, sterile filtering, and getting the wine in bottle within 4-5 months. The wine is almost always fine tasting, if uninspired, and really cheap to make.

The Cuvee Caritas White 2008 won me over from the start. I always approach new school whites with a bit of a raised eyebrow and a guarded stance.  I hate to say it but I usually don’t like them (personally speaking). Morgan is clearly onto something here; could Graves Blanc blends start to matter in California?  2008 Cuvee Caritas: The nose started out with white peaches, sweet citrus, high-toned flowers, fresh clean aromas, and a note of lychee nuts. As it warmed and opened up, brown asian pears dominated the nose with more spiced notes and lychee nuts. On the palate, it was more aggressive with powerful polished citrus fruit and wonderful texture (oak presence?). While it was powerful, it was still elegant, almost creamy on the palate, and graceful. Everything was well proportioned, nothing was out of place or balance, and it was ripe without being heavy. I can assure you that from the beginning this white grabbed every bit of my attention.  Wow, if this is a sign of things to come, Morgan is a star.

After spending quite a bit of time with the Cuvee Caritas, I popped the cork on the Bedrock Heirloom Red Blend 2009. An Heirloom wine is essentially a field blend from really old vineyards dominated by Black varietals: Zin, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Mouvedre, Tempranillo, and others. The Bedrock vineyard in Sonoma is planted with vines that are about 120 years old!  In order to keep a little more focus on the wines, to learn more about the Heirloom wines and Morgan’s thoughts on them, read http://www.bedrockwineco.com/importance/california-heirloom-wines/   The 2009 is a brand new puppy, seemingly just days old, but I had to treat it unfairly!   Initially, I was only mildly interested in the Heirloom wines as I usually don’t like Zin (too big and over blown or not interesting enough if balanced) and the Bedrock is roughly 40% Zin. But my excitement for Morgan’s wines supersede my suspicions of Zin, and I jumped in.  2009 Heirloom Bedrock Vineyard: Juicy red and blue fruits leap from the glass with supporting Asian spices, animale, and exotic fruit. It is jammy and juicy but not heavy or sweet. It is bright and streamlined but never lacking flavor or intensity.  On the palate it is flavorful and very elegant with spicy fruit, minerals, iron, and lots of blackberry fruit.  It has length and acidity. It needs time to flesh out which, I feel, will add  more punch to the mid-palate. Very impressive. Wow, I can’t wait to see what this is like in a few years. I am grabbing some for my cellar!

What I couldn’t help but think as I sipped on the Heirloom was these wines have the potential to define an ‘era’ in the California wine industry.  These wines are progressive in that they ignore the abstract nature of so many of their over-blown counterparts and they engage the old school nature of old world wine making. Yet, they insist on being decidedly California: terroir is of the upmost importance to Morgan. Bedrock is moving the industry forward (with a few others) to more balance and flavor without overdoing it with oak, alcohol, and ripeness.  All the praise and press Bedrock is getting might not be enough. I’ll say it again, this is a very important winery. You should be paying attention.

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