2021 Bedrock Wine Co., Old Vine Zinfandel, Katushas’ Vineyard, Lodi, California.
The 2021 Katushas’ Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel is ripe, but shows off a transparent and fresh personality with detailed layers of raspberry, wild plum, red peach and tangy currant fruits leading the way on the medium/full palate that also accented by dried herbs, zesty spices, stony notes, subtle wood and lingering kirsch. With air this vintage shows a touch of earth, prune and fig, making for a wine that is best enjoyed with BBQ and or meaty dishes. Morgan Twain-Peterson MW, winemaker and winegrower, farms and owns this old vine vineyard in Lodi and has helped preserve and rejuvenate these historic California vines. The Bedrock team has really done some exceptional offerings, in recent vintages especially, and this Katushas’ Zin is one of many outstanding wines in their collection. Bedrock’s three main estate vineyards, the namesake Bedrock Vineyard in the heart of Sonoma, the Evangelho Vineyard in the deep sands of Contra Costa County and this Katushas’ which is on the Mokelumne River in Lodi, all offer distinct terroir influence.
Bedrock is very proud of their estate vineyard in eastern Lodi, which they purchased in 2014, and the note that Katushas’ has made enormous strides in quality commensurate with the tender care that Bedrock’s crew have done repairing the vine structure, the soils, and the biological diversity that grows within it. The vines here have responded beautifully, according to the winery they are looking healthy even with with the heat stress they have had. The results of Bedrock’s TLC is a wonderfully fresh and balanced version of Zinfandel, they say, and I can confirm, making for an accessible early drinking effort. The terroir here, with its sandy soils, captures the natural character of the area, concentration being a given and ripe flavors, but fresh and retaining acidity thanks to healthy vines and the cool afternoon breeze that pushes up from the Sacramento River delta and the Mokelumne River. This wine was aged in mainly neutral wood foudres and large format barrels, with this 2021 Katushas’ seeing only a minimal amount of new oak. Like Turley, there’s fabulous set of Zins here at Bedrock, most of which are old vine heritage field blends, but I also love Rosé, Ode to Lulu, that is faithfully made in the Bandol Mourvedre based style, and the whites here too.
($45 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive