This Winemaker Has Been Producing Wine Since Age Five

Morgan Twain-Peterson takes us to the Bedrock Wine Co. vineyard in Sonoma, which produces as good a zinfandel as you will find —as well as the perfect answer to the eternal Thanksgiving conundrum.

I stumbled on this article while checking on a Wine Berserkers forum I babbled in last night after opening my first bottle of Bedrock Old Vine Zinfandel. The well-balanced red wine perfectly married fruit and spice and became a wonderful pairing to last night’s pizza. It was one of those moments where I physically had to remove the wine bottle from my line of sight so I didn’t keep pouring another glass. As I commented on an Instagram I posted: #sublime.

Before ever tasting any of his wines, I’ve been interested in Morgan based on his reputation for great wines, hard work, his prolific instagram activity and the the shear curiosity factor: He’s the son of a famed California winemaker. From the tiny glimpse I can see, Morgan’s out working (and as I just read in this story – studying for the Masters of Wine) and putting passion into his wine every. single. day.

But now I have a new reason to appreciate Bedrock wines, especially as a journalist who spent 16 years at a newspaper. You know those old vines? There’s a bit of history in them. As Jay MacInerney writes:

In 2004 he and his father bought Bedrock, the vineyard we’re strolling through today, and it’s a piece of land well suited to an American history buff. Much of it was planted between 1888 and 1895, when it was owned by millionaire senator George Hearst, the father of newspaperman William Randolph Hearst…. Some 33 acres of his original vines remain, still producing grapes more than 100 years later.

And before you wonder whether these old vines really matter (as opposed to new plantings), Morgan has this to say:

There is also a Darwinian element. If a vineyard has lasted through two world wars, Prohibition, and any number of other things, it must be special, or it would have likely been ripped out.

If the bottle of 2013 Bedrock Old Vine Zin I drank last night serves as any indication, it certainly is a beautiful expression of this special place.