Each week I pick out one wine to highlight as my wine of the week.  This wine may be an outstanding wine, a great value or just something very interesting.

 

 

 

Overview

When Morgan Twain-Peterson offered this wine in Bedrock’s e-mail release offer in February, a couple bottles were immediately added to my order.  I joined the Bedrock mailing list to be able to get my hands on their red wines.  I really like their reds but Morgan has exceeded expectations with his white wines and his Rosé is also outstanding.  This wine will give me a chance to see how he does with lighter bodied red wines.  For only $20 it wasn’t much of a gamble.

 

 

 

The Winery

Bedrock Wine Co. was founded in 2007 by Morgan Twain-Peterson in a 550 square-foot, former chicken coop with 8 foot ceilings and no fermentation space.  After six years of Bedrock being a one-man-show, Morgan was able to talk his best friend, Chris Cottrell, into moving to California from New York to join him.  They now happily have a little more space to move around in but share the same objectives that guided the winery at the start.

 

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 dream big but keep production low!

 

 

There is much more information about Morgan, the vineyards, his philosophy and most importantly the wines available on the website by clicking here.

 

To be able to get your hands on these marvelous wines, you need to get on the winery’s mailing list.  It looks like getting on the list may require a bit of time on their waiting list, but the wait is very worthwhile.  Click here to sign up.

 

 

 

 

2013 Bedrock Wine Co. Grenache Gris Gibson Ranch – $20.00

 

From Morgan –

When life gives you ancient Grenache, make ancient Grenache!  After picking out our bit of Grenache for rosé at Gibson Ranch I got a call from the ranch’s new owner Jake Bilbro.  It was their first year working the vineyard and it turns out they had a few extra tons of the Grenache left.  Would I be interested?  The stuff we got for rosé had been phenomenal and I wondered what it would look like for red.  It should also be noted that none of us are too sure what type of Grenache is up there.  It has very light pigmentation and the clusters take on a grayish caste, leading many to suspect it is actually Grenache Gris.  Another friend thinks it is too dark for Gris but might be Grenache Rouge, but not Grenache Noir.  I frankly don’t know what it is, but I know it is delicious.  I have long wanted to make a light, summer, red—a  California version of Beaujolais or Pinot D’Aunis or Frappato (yes, I know, those are not just summer wines) but perhaps kissed with just a trace more sunshine.  Something fresh, juicy, spicy, and delicious.  This fits that description.  It was fermented with 50% whole-cluster with no foot-trodding to maximize carbonic fermentation with the rest destemmed.  It fermented to dryness with native yeasts and underwent ML in a combination of neutral barrels and concrete tank.

 

This wine has 14.0% alcohol by volume and the bottle is sealed with a natural cork.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a light to medium ruby red color.  The reassuring nose has cherries, raspberries, white pepper, Asian spices, orange zest and a touch of earthiness.  This has medium body with light tannins and decent acidity.  On the palate red fruit and spices jump out first with white pepper and a slight citrus note coming in later.  The finish has good length with just enough of a tannic grip to provide good support.  If this was presented to me blind, a quick swirl, sniff and taste would have prompted a quick Cru Beaujolais response from me, which would have been wrong.  This has nice spice and just enough tannins to make up for the slightly soft acidity.  I wouldn’t hold this one too long, enjoy it over the next year or two.  (90 pts)

 

 

Closing thoughts

This wine would be perfect with just about any meal on a warm day.  I didn’t chill the wine, but I bet, like lighter bodied Beaujolais, this would provide a lot of enjoyment with a slight chill on a warm evening.

 

 

 

Connect with me

You can follow me on Twitter for more wine info, potential food pairings, and an occasional recipe or two.  Be warned, I’m also a sports fan and there are occasional Pittsburgh Penguins, Steelers, and Pirates tweets.  I attended the University of South Carolina, so during football season, there will also be some Gamecock posts.

 

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Cheers!

 

 

This is original to CliffsWinePicks.com.  Copyright 2014 Cliff’s Wine Picks.

All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Here is a link to a YouTube video of me getting “coal” from Santa for being named the “Nicest Person in Social Media” in 2012.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvQTeGR3-c

 

 

 

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Click here or on the “Cliff’s Wine Picks On Other Sites” link in the top right corner to see links to other sites that either have my reviews, my thoughts or other posts I have written.

 

 

 

Remember to support your local wine store!

 

 

 

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Notes – I use the “official” Cellar Tracker name for the wines.  I use Cellar Tracker to help manage and organize my cellar.  I highly recommend checking it out at www.cellartracker.com.  Loading you existing cellar is a lot less intimidating than it would first appear.  There is a good chance 99% of your wine is already in the system, so you generally only need to enter part of the wine’s name and the system will find it for you.

 

 

Prices noted are the prices I paid at the time of purchase.  I don’t shop around to find the best prices, but my local store is usually VERY competitive.  I generally get case discounts, and since I work there part time, I get a 5% discount.  Wines purchased direct from a winery do not include any shipping charges.  None of the prices include the sales tax.

 

 

All wines that were sent to me free of charge to sample will be noted and I will show suggested prices when available.

 

 

 

Cheers!