2013 Three Wine Company Mataro Spinelli Vineyard 750 ml

A Second Note from the Founder: Highest-Rated Under-$25 Red EVER on WineAccess

A Note from the Founder: On January 2nd, for the first time in a long time, I decided to add my two cents to a daily offer. Matt Cline has been a close friend for almost 30 years. My wife and I have shared countless bottles of ancient-vine Zinfandel with the Clines. But the old-vine red that’s always most intrigued me has been Matt’s 129-year-old Spinelli Vineyard Mataro (or Mourvèdre), made from the variety that’s responsible for my favorite wine of the southern Rhône, Beaucastel’s “Hommage à Jacques Perrin.”

Many of those who followed my advice and purchased the 2012 Mataro also took the time to rate. Much to my satisfaction, the average rating from those 86 buyers was 4.3 stars, the highest rating ever attributed to an under-$25 American red.

This morning, I’m back again, this time suggesting you consider purchasing a few bottles of the 2013 Mataro, which I find to be of equal concentration as the 2012, yet due to the smaller yields and somewhat cooler growing season, even more aromatically complex, and if you want, a bit more “Beaucastel-like.” Thanks again for listening.
(JMW, 10/16/16)

It’s the secret ingredient in Xavier Vignon’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape “Anonyme” and the essence of Beaucastel’s “Hommage à Jacques Perrin,” Parker’s 100-point elixir. When Mourvèdre vines — what the Spanish call “Mataro” — are long in the tooth, and the soil is fine and sandy, no variety combines such a combination of dark-red-fruit voluptuousness and chameleon-like complexity.

Back in the mid-’80s, when Matt Cline, fresh out of UC Davis’s enology school, discovered a 5-acre Mourvèdre parcel improbably planted on Delhi Sandy Loam east of the San Francisco Bay, he was intrigued. On a whim, he locked into a few tons of small-berry fruit drawn from gnarly vines that spider close to the ground to protect themselves from the bay breeze. At harvest, there were just a few clusters per plant, barely a ton and a half per acre. We remember that first Mourvèdre wine from Spinelli Vineyard. It wasn’t just good; it was spectacular.

In the years to come, Matt would fashion some of the greatest Zinfandels on the coast, single-vineyard bottlings from old-vine Contra Costa sites called “Bridgehead,” “Big Break,” and “Live Oak.” But few knew that Cline, just like Beaucastel and Vignon, was sprinkling his secret old-vine Mataro all over those high-end Zins, providing silken texture, high-toned red fruit intensity, and ethereal aromatic delicacy.

Twenty years later, when Matt and his wife, Erin, launched their own boutique brand called “Three,” Cline decided it was time to pay a special tribute to Spinelli. In the 2013 growing season, the second in a series of four drought vintages on the North Coast, Cline crafted a few hundred cases of pure Mataro off that 5-acre patch, making for a rare old-vine American red that combines New World bombast with Beaucastel complexity.

The 2013 Three Mataro Spinelli Vineyard is drawn from a planting that just celebrated its 129th birthday. Saturated purple in hue. Wildly aromatic, complex, and chiseled aromatically, featuring a fleshy mix of blackberry, licorice, and violets. Ultra-concentrated on the attack, packed with small black-fruit preserves, finishing with great tension and dusty tannin backbone. Drink now or anytime over the next DECADE.

Total production of 500 cases, 100 of which have been earmarked for WineAccess. $35 on release. Just $21 today for the most fascinating and complex wine in Matt Cline’s old-vine repertoire.