If you want to talk about “heritage” vineyards in California—the places where the state’s early wine history was written—Morgan Twain-Peterson is your guy. His Bedrock Wine Company is a “mission-driven operation dedicated to preserving and rehabilitating old vineyards around California.” He and partner Chris Cottrell have assembled a far-flung roster of growers that includes some of the most legendary names in California viticulture—including Frank Evangelho, the second-generation steward of a vineyard in Antioch, in Contra Costa County, that dates to 1890. From those ancient vines Morgan and Chris handcraft a wine that has the power and depth of classic California Zinfandel based field blends, and yet is also remarkably lifted, elegant, and dare we say graceful. Where Cabernet and Pinot are constantly chasing their ancestors in Europe, this soulful red wine is 100%, unabashedly anchored in California terroir and history. How’s that for a Thanksgiving special? It’s limited, don’t wait!
Morgan Twain-Peterson founded his own tiny winemaking company, Bedrock, in 2007, buying tiny amounts of fruit and working out of a converted chicken coop–hard to think of a more humble beginnings in the winemaking trade! Morgan grew up around Northern California wine, as his father, Joel Peterson, was the founder of Ravenswood wines. A few years into the project Morgan’s good friend Chris Cottrell, a wine aficionado and bon-vivant turned farmer, joined him in the cellar. Their mission is to locate, rehabilitate, and preserve California’s ancient, heritage vineyards. They have spent the better part of the last two decades scouring California for these rare, historic sites. Most of their source vines are over 100 years old.
One of the jewels in their beautifully esoteric collection is the Evangelho vineyard. Located near the town of Antioch (an eastern suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area), just a few miles from the San Pablo bay and the Sacramento River Delta, this is a site that was originally planted in the 19th century by Portuguese immigrants and continues to survive, even thrive today. The soil here is almost pure marine sand, and that means that phylloxera can’t survive, so these vines planted on original rootstock in 1890 continue to produce beautifully complex fruit. It’s a true field blend, with Zinfandel, Carignan, and Mourvèdre taking the lead among nearly a dozen varieties.
As with all of their wines, they work as naturally and hands-off as possible, wanting to preserve every ounce of terroir that these magnificent parcels contain. Small, hand picked bunches from the nearly one dozen different varieties (including a few white grapes) found in the vineyard are all co-fermented together–a true field blend. As is generally the case, Zinfandel is the primary grape for this 2022, but Carignan and Mourvèdre play an outsized role in this release. After fermentation the wine is aged in mostly neutral oak barrels of various sizes for about a year before bottling.
Serve this deep, brooding beauty in a large Bordeaux stem at cellar temperature after a vigorous 30 minute decant. In the glass, it is an inky purple-black moving to a magenta rim, with lively aromas of crushed blackberry, black currant, pomegranate, juniper, roses, violets, black pepper, anise, dark chocolate, and dusty earth. It is full-bodied without being flabby or sweet—the fate of so many high-octane Zins these days—with a gentle nip of tannin complemented by palate-refreshing acidity. For all its heft, you won’t be weighed down by this wine, which clocks in at 14.5% alcohol but doesn’t feel like it. I would serve it with anything roasted or grilled, but given the California history here I think that Santa Maria style barbeque would be ideal. Enjoy your holiday!
