What Bedrock Wine Co. is About

Bedrock Wine Company is about the process.  Not the cliched process where one sees beautiful images of vines and Vivaldi playing in the background, aka. not Napa Valley, but rather, about the process of wine as a byproduct of humanity.  When done right winemaking is more than a simple chemical conversion carried out by yeast.  Rather, it is the sum of many factors.  It is a sum of the soil, the bedrock, the people, the decisions of viticulture, and the decisions in the cellar, that bring forth any given wine.  The process is what imbues wine with singularity– for no two wines can be alike.  It is why wine is that rare beverage that offers diversity commensurate to the multiety of people.  

What I endeavor to do with this site, and my wines, is to isolate some of those factors that I love so much and bring it to you. In my life I have often tried to convey those things that make winemaking so special– the dust, the sticky-sweetness of your hands after berry-sampling, the smell of ferments, the bright taste of anchor steam after a hysterical crisp fall day spent doing pressloads.  Harvest is the equivalent of vinous midwifery and it carries with it all the metaphorical elements of creation and birth.  With this winery, and with this inaugural vintage of 2007, I am hoping nurture along wines that will carry the fingerprints of my love.  These are my attempts to etch the board of California wine history with my own mark. 

There is a focus on history in these wines as I look both back into the past and forward into what might be for inspiration.  I am, in some cases, completely forsaking the focus on “varietal” wines which have defined the post-Mondavi era of California winemaking.  Rather, with the California field blends I feel that I am creating a wine– based on Zinfandel but with lots of other goodies in it– that is more true and more reflective of the wines envisioned by those who first planted vineyards in California.  I believe the use of indigenous yeasts, limited gentle rackings, and limited new oak, on these wines will allow the taster to have a true sense of how unique and delicious these wines can be.  Also, as the strange patterns of climate change take effect I believe that these field blends will again be part of answer to some of the incredibly difficult decisions that will be facing the wine industry in the next few decades and beyond.

It is also with this in mind that I have am making Syrah– a grape which I believe will have a large part to do with California’s future.  Syrah from the Golden State is suffering an identity crisis similar to the one Zinfandel suffered in the late-80’s and early-90’s (and I would argue is suffering from again today).  Simply, people do not know what to expect from Syrah– the sheer diversity of styles is overwhelming to the consumer.  Unlike Napa Valley Cabernet, in which the over-under spread from the median, style-wise, is pretty limited, Syrah takes many different forms.  This is because Syrah is actually as good a grape for California, as a geographic entity, as Zinfandel is– it makes fascinating wines from a bevy of different locations up and down the coast and even inland to the Sierra foothills.  Taste a line-up of the great wines from Copain, Renard, or Pax if you need any proof of this.  Since selling wine is all about getting people to understand; to go “oh, not only does that make sense but it tastes damn good,”  I am hoping that the format of this site will allow people to see the challenges and stylistic options available to a winemaker trying to make the grape.  It is for these reasons that I have chosen what I believe to be an excellent cool climate site in Old Lakeville Vineyard, and a warmer inland site in Kick Ranch.

And the Cabernet….well.  The Cabernet is going to be my spoofilated bomb.  My balls out attempt to prove that Sonoma Valley can create an epic Cabernet (no offense to Laurel Glen, which does, but that is Sonoma Mountain).  You may know the type– rife with the toast of expensive barrels, rich flavors, and sheer, warm, decadence.  Global warming is going to make Cabernet obsolete in California soon enough anyway so I might as well throw all the tea over the side of the deck and see what happens. 

So come see!  Tell me what you think.  This is meant as a dialogue and not a diatribe.

I love the life that I live and live the life that I love.