2020 Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah!, Old Vine Mourvèdre, Evangehlo Vineyard, Contra Costa County.
As fires raged throughout California this ancient vineyard site, set remotely along the delta on deep Delphi sands, near a PG&E transformer, quietly produced some of California’s best grapes without the devastating smoke taint that affected almost 80% of the wine regions of the state. Taking full advantage of this blessing, winemaker Hardy Wallace at Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! has made a gorgeous Old Vine Mourvèdre from Morgan Twain-Peterson’s Evangelho Vineyard in the most raw and natural style possible, it shows his chops when working with this varietal, which is without a doubt his signature grape. One of the most gentle, flamboyant and intriguing personalities in the wine business Wallace, who was originally part of Dirty & Rowdy wines, has added to his legend here, with his 2020 Evangelho Mourvèdre, which shows remarkably fresh crushed blackberries, Provencal herbs and stunning violets and peony perfume on the nose and that echo on the expressive and supple palate with dark plums, raspberry, currant and the mentioned blackberry fruits leading the way along with peppery spice, hints of lavender, cinnamon, sandalwood and a touch of leather, which is a classic marker of this grape. There is a beautiful clarity in this ripe, but finely balanced vintage and at only 13% natural alcohol this wine is fabulously quaffable, while still providing a serious underlying structure and hidden depth, this wine with please and impress even the most snobbish of Bandol enthusiast! I highly suggest following Hardy on social media, which he has truly mastered to a new art form and searching out his latest wild collection of offerings.
Hardy Wallace always suggests loads of time decanting his Mourvèdre bottlings, recommending up to 75 minutes most times, but I just popped the cork and went for it and after a few minutes this wine blossomed and was pure seduction, getting better and better with every sip, it really didn’t show the grape’s normal funk, feral notes and edgy meaty elements, even though it teased it and the full experience here was one of vinous joy, with hedonistic old vine fruit concentration. Wallace is clean and passionate natural winemaker and his wines show his commitment to the details, even when he tries his best to only allow the vineyard to speak in his wines, using a very hands off approach with the Mourvèdre seeing native yeast fermentation(s) and no additions in most years and the wines are aged in neutral old ranch oak barrels. Hardy has been experimenting with his Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! wines, perfecting his Orange wines and even adding skin fermented white grapes to his red blends, while his Mourvèdre sees a more old school and traditional style in most cases and like here in his Evangelho version, from gnarly 100 year old plus vines, which was crafted with whole cluster and a lengthy maceration with hand punch-downs before the wine is pressed to oak casks where it was matured about a year before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Obviously, this wine is what it is, because of the quality of the grapes and this historic vineyard plays the most significant role in the greatness here, hats off to Wallace for setting the stage for this Old Vine Mourvèdre’s glorious performance. This deep purple/garnet hued wine pays homage to some of the finest Bandol wines, like Château de Pibarnon, Pradeaux and Domaine de Terrebrune, and this Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah! Mourvèdre is best enjoyed with hearty and or rustic country cuisine with leg of lamb and duck confit being a couple of nice pairings!
($50 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive