Joe Hakim

9.5

Absolute stunner. Bright, tart, fruity. — 5 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.7

One of my favourite Champagnes. At the Come Taste the Stars Dinner hosted by Tyson Stelzer. 100% Pinot Noir. Barely a foot of top soil before the roots enter the chalk. Incredibly minerality. Egly prefers NV to vintage for the Blanc de Noirs. Disgorged 2018 with 6 years on Lees. A blend of 2010 and 2011 both average vintages incredibly. Full bodied and powerful. Stunning. Amazing value compared to the Krug Clos de Ambonnay at $4500 and 10 times the price of the Egly. — 6 years ago

Chris England

9.7

Rare 96 RP Priorat, only 1,008 bottles of which I had 3 😊 @ €178 that's just beautiful & will age into divinity 😍 The 2015 is fab to 😉 Drink or hold it will deliver 👍 Probably optimal in 7-10 years 👌 Foot pressed to & I found no toenails 🤣

📍 Terroir Al Limit Les Tosses 2013

🐮 Paired w/ slow cooked beef 🥩 & Mrs Es Mac cheese 🧀 👌

🏵 97 points

🍇 100% Carignan from 70+ year old vines

🍷 Dark ruby w/ purple hue

👃 Elegant strawberries & spiced red cherries w/ touches of blackberry & punchy raspberry seduced by soft oak, soggy earth, violets, liquorice touch & fine smoke w/ a light farmyard backbone

👄 Med silky polished delicate dark & red fruits galore that dance all over your tasting sensors to activate a taste explosion of decadence on your helpless guzzle hole 😍 in a tickle of med acidity

🎯 Long soft but full earthy summer fruits 💋 and another 💋 in fact a dirty snog 😘
— 6 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.1

A small, family-run domaine now in its 5th generation. Cathy & Cedric aim to strike a balance between the old and the new, with wines that respect the traditions of their ancestors but have one foot firmly in the present.100% Gamay, bright red with red fruit aromas and oaky pepper notes. On the palate cherry flavors with espresso, oak and vanilla, soft tannins on lingering finish. Good balance. — 8 years ago

Bradley Robinson

9.9

96 Bordeaux round 2. Like drinking an old musty delicious pepper sock pulled right off of Michelle Ryan's foot. — 9 years ago

Fabian Östman

9.0

Good everyday-wine :-) — 9 years ago

Jeff Burrows

9.3

One foot in the new world, one foot in the old. Earthy elements, but a bit more fruit than its Chinon counterpart. Respectfully done, love this wine! — 9 years ago

Martin Sorge

9.0

Not as unctuous as some vintages. But still all yellow apples and Meyer lemon. — 9 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.4

Located on the outskirts of the medieval town of Saint-Emilion, at the southern foot of the slope. A blend of 55% Merlot, 35% Cab Franc &10% Cab Sauv, aged in 60% new oak, deep Ruby with aromas of dark fruit accompanied by cedar & spice. The palate shows fresh ripe dark berry fruits, cacao, tobacco and espresso notes. Well balanced, perfect tannins, a joy to drink but cellar until 2022 for a better experience. Tasting Sample! — 5 years ago

Madison Elizabeth

9.7

Cinnamon Girl at Left Foot Charleys. Tastes and smells like an apple pie. Not overwhelmingly cinnamon — 6 years ago

Matthew Cohen

9.2

Man I love this. Great strawberry fruit. 100 pct Nebbiolo from the foot of the alps. Simply delicious. July 4 Italian style. Bought from Fass Selections. — 7 years ago

with Lyle

Johanna Ekblad

9.1

Great with a steak — 8 years ago

Marissa A. Ross

Wine Editor, Bon Appétit

9.0

Like a Fruit by the Foot lit on fire for the fuse of a Molotov cocktail of boysenberry syrup. Not a huge Grenache fan, but this one made me reconsider. — 8 years ago

"Odedi"

9.2

It's time for my Friday's Cabernet fix. This time, a wonderful Chilean Cabernet.

Deep purple in color with a purplish rim.

Beautiful nose of blueberries, blackberries, black currants, plums, cooked cherries, oak, vanilla, licorice, earth, spices, peppercorn, leather, bell pepper, sage, peppermint, eucalyptus and smoke.

Full bodied with medium acidity and beautiful long legs.

Dry on the palate with blackberries, black currants, cherries, figs, cloves, herbs, earth, cola, vanilla, oak, spices, light vegetables, coffee, chocolates, bell pepper, tobacco, beef jerky and peppercorn.

Long finish with firm tannins and black pepper.

An elegant, Single Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, with lots of complexity and fitness, but not fully balanced yet.

Still young now, but very enjoyable by itself, and better with BBQ Meats. I paired it with a cheese platter, crackers and nice company.

Grapes are grown at the foot hills of the Andes Mountains, on stony soils. 99% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc.

14.5% alcohol by volume. — 9 years ago

Woong HwangBo

9.0

Lychee, Pineapple, Mango
On the palate has Oxidative character with good performance — 9 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.1

The “Clos de Malte” is a 7 ha Monopole (Louis Jadot is sole owner) situated on the climat “Sous la Fée” at foot of Montagne des Troix Croix. Santenay Clos de Malte is mainly planted with Pinot Noir with a small hectare of Chardonnay situated on very damp soil of limestone and clay. Rich & elegant, aromas of stone fruit, citrus & spice. Flavors of green apple, lemon & peach with cedar, wet stone and baking spice. Lingering, ending with a mineral character. Nice! Consistent quality! — 5 years ago

Matt

9.1

Always been a go-to producer for me in terms of price, drinkability, and sense of place. This had all the MSD character I look for in village wines with generous fruit and weight to make it a no fuss experience. Some reduction and brett dominated but blew off quickly letting its leathery and brambly, sous bois fruity character shine through. One foot in rustic, one foot in conventional, this had a well rounded mix of what I like when I reach for this village. — 6 years ago

Mason Balistreri

Sommelier, International Wine Guild; Balistreri Vineyard; Sales, Joy Wine and Spirits

9.6

It might shock you, but my favorite rosé is not French but instead comes from California! Blasphemy, I know - but Bedrock's Ode to Lulu is just that good. The difficulty is actually finding a bottle. For the last three years, I've only been allocated a case (or less) to sell here in Denver. It's possible you are one of the select few I've actually told about this wine... If not, now is your chance. This is the first year there's an "okay" supply. It won't last, but you should be able to get a bottle.

So yes, it's not French but it's made in the same style and method of Tempier Bandol Rosé- the most sought after, cult rosé out there. The name "Ode to Lulu" is actually an homage to the 4.5 foot tall, 101 year old woman named "Lulu" Peyraud (born Lucie Tempier) whose father gifted the Mourvedre heavy estate to her and her husband Lucien Peyraud. The wines they would go on to produce from the 1940's onward quite literally defined Bandol and put it on the map as some of the best rosés out there. She's still alive and presumably drinking plenty of wine.

This California-born "Ode to Lulu" is modeled after the great Tempier, but has some unique properties compared to it's French namesake. For one, the vines are EXTREMELY old. Tempier defined itself by focusing on old Mourvèdre and Grenache plantings, but even these French vineyards cannot compare to what Bedrock is working with in California. If you don't know, Bedrock is the winery of Morgon Twain Peterson, son of legendary Ravenswood founder Joel Peterson. Morgon grew up making wine and through his father has cultivated relationships with some of the most important heritage vineyards in California. The "Ode to Lulu" is made from Mourvèdre and Grenache planted as far back as 1888! These are some of the oldest plantings of these grapes around and make for unbelievable wines. Tempier's average vine age is around 40 years old today. Bedrock's is over 3x as old. Insane.

Morgon may be young, but he has a life time of winemaking experience. He started making wine with his father when he was 5 years old and hasn't stopped yet. In addition to absorbing his father's knowledge on heritage vineyards, he is a real student in the world of wine, earning a "Masters of Wine" designation (this industry's highest achievement). I've been drinking his wine for several years and I can say that his wine is made extremely thoughtfully and with expert attention to detail. This is true even with a wine as humble as rosé.

Unlike most California pink wine, Bedrock is not produced by "bleeding off" juice from a red wine. Instead, the grapes are picked early and separately at very low potential alcohols, and whole cluster pressed with low extraction. This preserves the freshness and acidity, creating a wine of clarity. In an old blog post I dug up, Morgon explains this idea:

"I pick at potential alcohols lower on the scale where brightness and lift still exist. This is not to say that fruit does not matter—I use Mourvedre from a block planted over 120 years ago for requisite concentration of complexity of flavor—but like fine champagne, the wonders of rosé lie in its unbearable lightness of being."

I agree with this idea of rosé and I think most people instinctively do as well. It's no coincidence that our best selling bottles come from provence. However, I urge you to pick up at least one bottle of this Ode to Lulu. It's a wine that's close in spirit to the best French rosé but made from vineyards that are American and unrivaled in age.

This is the fourth vintage of Ode to Lulu I've tasted, and I would say that's the most elegant yet. The 2015 was maybe my favorite for it's depth and I picked a few up to age, drinking my last bottle recently... This new vintage is great now, but it will reward with a short cellaring time. Honestly, if you can hide 2 bottles and drink them before fall or into next year, you will be blown away. Bandol rosé is a wine that improves dramatically over the course of 6 months to several years (Tempier Rosé is known to go decades). This bedrock is no different.

I can personally attest to past vintages gaining depth with time. How is this possible? Unlike other rosé which should be drank young, Bandol and Ode to Lulu are made of Mourvedre, a grape that is naturally reductive and resistant to oxidation. Further, the acidity is high and alcohol low. As the acidity starts to fall away, a depth and richness of character will emerge. In fruitier/riper rosé with more alcohol, this richness becomes too sweet and cloying... Not the case here. This keep balanced through time, gaining complexity while remaining refreshing. 

You should buy this wine. However, I think there is one more important facet to rosé that I should mention before you do... Rosé is not always about what's in the glass itself. Rosé is really an ethereal thing... It's more so an "essence" of terroir and vintage rather than a sturdy, hard representation like red wine is... Sorry if that doesn't make sense but what I'm trying to say is that sometimes rosé is more about the place and the people you enjoy it with than the exact flavors themselves. Of course, we cannot all visit the picturesque village of Bandol to visit Lulu Peyraud; but I think, with this sunny Colorado weather, we can come close. Perhaps Morgon said it better than I can:

"Proper rosé is refreshing, life-nourishing stuff that revives the soul... I drink as much for pure pleasure as for intellectual stimulation. In the warmer months there is something sacred about a late afternoon meal of cold chicken, fresh garden tomatoes, and rosé. It is one body in the sacred trilogy of rustic simplicity." - Morgon Twain Peterson

#rose #oldvine #lulu #tempier #bedrockwineco — 7 years ago

Oliver Chapoy

9.1

There's something really weird happening and I can't quite pin point it — 9 years ago

WineMascot

9.3

One foot in cali, the other in burgundy. Their Merlot and their very small production chard is an insiders secret! — 9 years ago