Every Thursday I feature a wine I particularly enjoy, whether it’s something new and different, is a great value, or from a producer worth checking out. For this week, my Wine Of The Week is the 2012 Bedrock Wine Co. Sauvignon Blanc Kick Ranch.
The Winery
Bedrock Wine Co. is an “itsy-bitsy winery making wine in a converted chicken coop”. Though recently Morgan Twain-Peterson, the winemaker/owner of Bedrock Wine Co. announced some big changes including building a new winery, and hiring of close friend, Chris Cottrell to work with him. Sounds like Bedrock will be moving from the “itsy-bitsy” level to a higher level production-wise. The wines are already major, quality-wise!
There are two things that make Bedrock Wine Co. special in my view – the first is Morgan (you can check out his full bio here), but suffice it to say he’s been making wine since he was “knee-high to a bug” including working harvests in McLaren Vale, Australia and worked as a visiting winemaker at Chateau Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux before returning to California to focus on revitalizing California’s heirloom vineyards. He was recently named one of the Top 100 Most Influential U.S. Winemakers.
The second is his vineyard sources. I did a post last year entitled Bedrock Wine Co: Where Old Vine Love And Transcendent Wine Making Come Together, wherein I focused on the sources of Bedrock’s grapes.
In terms of the wine making process itself at Bedrock, it’s surprisingly Ole Skool (or as Morgan might put it “Cro-magnum”). Grapes are pitch-forked into a small Zambelli destemmer, the punch-downs are manual, after fermentation the wines are basket pressed in an Italian press that is manually operated. It’s a very manual and time-consuming process, but I can vouch for the results. Peterson is making some unique distinctly Californian wines that are spectacular!
The Wine
The fruit for this wine is sourced from Kick Ranch Vineyard. The wine is fermented entirely in barrel, with approximately 5% new Acacia wood, which gives the wine some floral aromatics, and let’s the fruit shine through.
According to Bedrock…The wine fermented with native yeasts into January and then was sulfured to prevent malolactic. The hope is to create richness from the increased oxidation of the barrel but also to preserve freshness from the reductiveness of the lees and the total lack of malolactic.
OK…I’m no winemaker, so I’ll take Morgan’s word for it…
Well, here’s what I do know…this is a distinctly California wine that’s very memorable!
My tasting notes follow:
Pale straw yellow-green color with very expansive pear, white flower, nuanced ocean breeze, citrus peel, and honey aromas. On the palate, its dryish, medium-bodied, with lively acidity, and a great mouth feel. It exhibits lush peach, guava, citrus and subtle honey flavors with a clean medium-long finish. SRP – $22
Rating: A-:
Pair with: Seafood Salad, or Creole Baked Goat Cheese!
Sample purchased for review
(A+) – 98-100/Extraordinary
(A) – 94-97/Outstanding
(A-) – 90-93/Excellent
(B+) – 86-89/Very good
(B) – 80-85/Good
(C) – 70-79/Bleh
(D) – 50-69/#Fail
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This article is original to ENOFYLZ Wine Blog.com. Copyright 2013 ENOFYLZ Wine Blog. All rights reserved.
As you already know, I’m a BIG fan of Morgan’s wines. I think his white wines are some of the best values being made in California. Great wines at a killer price point is a recipe for success.
Great Post 🙂
Nice post, and good choice for your WOTW. Another Bedrock fan here, I always look forward to the next release!
Thanks for the kind words. Bedrock truly rocks!