2016 Dashe Cellars Ancient Vines Bedrock Vineyard Sonoma Valley 750 ml

“I feel like we’re on a one-winery crusade to show how complex and how elegant Zinfandel can be on the world stage, and compete with any wine,” Mike Dashe said. If the 2016 Dashe Ancient Vines Bedrock Vineyard is any indication, he and his wife Anne are succeeding brilliantly.

The 2016 Dashe Ancient Vines Bedrock Vineyard, a blend of Carignane, Zinfandel, and Mourvèdre from 132-year-old vines, is a dynamite red from one of California's great "First Growths" that tastes like it costs twice as much. Originally planted by Civil War generals Hooker and Sherman, the 2016 is effusive with aromas of crushed black raspberry, cassis, plum, black pepper, and tar, and drips with flavors of black currant, cranberry, licorice, and leather.

Some of the best restaurants in the United States have included Dashe on their Michelin-starred lists, including Chez Panisse, The French Laundry, Per Se, Le Cirque, and Alinea. From coast to coast, it’s one of the few Zins that top chefs know will frame their food with the kind of complexity it requires.

Back when Mike Dashe was an intern at Château Lafite-Rothschild, he never thought that one day he’d make wine from one of the oldest, most important vineyards in America. Neither did Anne Dashe during her long days of brandy-making at Rémy Martin. But their work eventually took them back to California, where they made their names at top producers like Ridge, Schramsberg, Chappellet, Far Niente, and more.

Powerhouse wineries like Ridge, Turley, and Biale have made California the international powerhouse it is today in part through their wines from Bedrock Vineyard. Robert Parker himself has called Dashe’s Bedrock wines “luscious” and “sexy,” and enthused, “Thank God sites like this still exist and have not been uprooted!” He added that Bedrock “certainly proves ancient immigrants knew what they were doing when they planted this vineyard.”

Bedrock Vineyard was planted in 1888, and is “situated in a mid-valley sweet spot for Zinfandel,” according to Wine Spectator, which added that “its neighbors include distinguished and historic Zin vineyards such as Old Hill and Monte Rosso.” Unlike most other vineyards from the 19th century, parts of it were broken into blocks by grape variety. Most ancient vineyards are field blends, which forces producers to pick everything at once, hedging the ripeness of one type of grape against the immaturity of another. 

But the Dashes’ Bedrock blocks are mostly planted to individual varieties, which “allows us to harvest the fruit separately, when it’s perfectly ready, and then ferment them separately and blend them together,” Mike explained. “For an old-vine wine to be able to do that is an amazing thing. It’s very unusual.”

When Morgan Twain-Peterson called and offered Dashe the opportunity to work with some of the best blocks of the vineyard that his father, the legendary Joel Peterson, had just put him in charge of, they didn’t hesitate for a second. Morgan “is one of the most educated, thoughtful vineyard guys in the country,” Mike said, and “he called the people who he thought could do the most interesting work [with that land]. I was very honored to be part of the group that he chose. He knew that my style was more of an elegant, Old World style, and I think he was interested in someone who could make the wine in that style.”

The purity of the 132-year-old vines sings through, yet unlike so many full-throttle California Zins, this velvety wine has enough minerality and earthiness to find a perfect sense of balance.