2015 Bedrock Wine Company Old Vine Zinfandel 750 ml

80-Year-Old Vines + Parker’s “World-Class Performer”

This lush and layered 93-point 2015 Bedrock Wine Company Old Vine Zinfandel was lovingly handcrafted by Morgan Twain-Peterson MW, 100-point winemaker and newly-minted Master of Wine who, in Robert Parker’s words, “has built his Bedrock Wine Co. into a world-class performer.” Parker’s raves about Morgan’s “Midas touch” are backed by the two perfect 100 point scores he has bestowed on the wines of Twain-Peterson and his partner Chris Cottrell. The Bedrock Vineyard, planted in the 1880s, is the source of some of Bedrock’s most decorated wines, and largely responsible what Wine Spectator hails as an “explosion of pure, decadent fruit” in the 2015 Old Vines Zinfandel. 2015 was “spectacular” for Sonoma County Zin according to Vinous, and Antonio Galloni ramped up the praise for the 2015 Bedrock Zinfandels, calling them “outrageously beautiful.” At $23.99, stuff as much as you can in the cellar and savor Bedrock’s gorgeous incarnation of upper-echelon California winemaking.

If Morgan Twain-Peterson’s upbringing as son of legendary Ravenswood Winery founder Joel Peterson deserves a mention, it is partially because Morgan himself has such reverence for history. If the mention is brief, it is because the 100-point winemaker’s present pursuits and stellar reputation have managed to push his pedigree into the background.

Twain-Peterson’s mind and mission center on old vines: 80 percent of the vines he and his partner Chris Cottrell work with are at least 80 years old. The 2014 San Francisco Chronicle Co-Winemaker of the Year believes the conventional wisdom that older vines mean more concentration, but also that, in the vineyard, only the exceptional survive: “If a vineyard has lasted through two world wars (and) Prohibition, it must be special.” Morgan’s work as winemaker begins long before harvest, as he and Cottrell scour California for its most worthy and ancient vines.