2022 Bedrock Contra Costa County Red Blend - Evangelho

Morgan Twain-Peterson started the Bedrock Wine Company in 2007 to make “personality-filled wines wrought from a small array of thoughtfully farmed vineyards” - many of them historic and very old. One of those vineyards is Evangelho, in Antioch - a 35-minute drive from Paul Marcus Wines. You could take BART there. As the Bedrock website notes: “Planted in the 1890s, the vineyard is a viticultural survivor - surrounded by evidence of suburban sprawl encroaching on one of the last agricultural islands left in Contra Costa County.” The vineyard has been farmed since 1963 by Frank Evangelho, whose father bought it in the 1930s. The vines are ungrafted, bush-trained, gnarled survivors growing in 40-foot-deep banks of beach sand next to the Sacramento River Delta. The ungrafted part is thanks to the beach sand: The phylloxera root louse that destroyed most of the vitis vinifera vines in the world starting in the 19th century (and thus necessitated grafting onto phylloxera-resistant rootstock) can’t survive in sand. 

Evangelho, like most centenarian vineyards, was planted with a mix of grape varieties, so this wine is a field blend (if you must know: 78% zinfandel, 16% mourvèdre, and 6% a blend of carignan, alicante bouschet, grand noir, palomino, clairette blanche, etc.). The wine fermented in open-top vats and then aged for 11 months in 300-liter and 600-gallon neutral oak puncheons. In the glass, it shows crunchy red and black fruits, fresh herbs, a little tannin, and excellent acidity. It’s not intensely zin-y and not the least bit jammy. The mourvèdre gives some darker fruit character, and other varieties (including white ones!) provide lift and acidity. In fact, it responds well to 20 minutes in the fridge. This is a classic and classy wine that does California - and our neighboring county - proud. Drink it now with barbecue or curry, or cellar it for 5-10 years.