Great stuff. Just a hint of old sweaty gym shoe at opening, great liquid slippery texture, great fruit, and very pure. Blueberry. Any oak has faded. Classic Mourvedre, but certainly on the polished side. A tad simple - the flatland terroir shows. Super balance. From 100 year old + vines. I'd love to throw this into a lineup of Bandols and see how it shows. This made me think of Gaussen in style.
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1993 Ridge Bridgehead Mataro
- Thread starter BJ
- Start date
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
1993 Ridge Bridgehead MataroGreat stuff. Just a hint of old sweaty gym shoe at opening, great liquid slippery texture, great fruit, and very pure. Blueberry. Any oak has faded. Classic Mourvedre, but certainly on the polished side. A tad simple - the flatland terroir shows. Super balance. From 100 year old + vines. I'd love to throw this into a lineup of Bandols and see how it shows. This made me think of Gaussen in style.
I've always liked this wine too. However, I'm not sure I'd put simplicity as the fault of "flatland terroir". In the past, I have had old vine Mourvedre from Contra Costa and Sonoma Valley side-by-side, produced in the same winery and manner, and the Contra Costa was just as complex. But more in a baked herbal-spice way; less dense or long on the palate than the Sonoma Valley wine.
Isn't Chateauneuf-du-Pape fairly flat? They grow some complex Mourvedre there...
Just like Long Island, eh?originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
CNP is a big outwash terminal moraine; a lot of topo.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
There are hills, valleys, plateaus, rocks, sand and whatnot in CdP. It's not like Cote Rotie, but it's hardly flatland. As someone who grew up on Long Island, I'd say it's not much like that either.
Oh, well, I'll give up hope then.originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
As someone who grew up on Long Island, I'd say it's not much like that either.
Steve Edmunds
Steve Edmunds
are own-rooted in really deep Delta-wash sand. Soil-wise, fairly uninteresting, compared to, say, clay-limestone, at least for Mourvedre. I worked with fruit from there for four vintages, at the same time I worked with Mourvedre from old vines in decomposed sandstone and shale at Brandlin, on Mt. Veeder, from which site the depth and complexity expressed, especially in that grape, were much more interesting, by a factor of...oh, I don't know, something over 50. (Brandlin had Zinfandel that was legendary in the minds of vintners all over Napa, as well as some Charbono, and some old-vine Carignan, all of which made marvelous wines, but none as expressive, and with as much soul as the Mourvedre.)
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
The Mataro vineyards in Oakley/Antiochare own-rooted in really deep Delta-wash sand. Soil-wise, fairly uninteresting, compared to, say, clay-limestone, at least for Mourvedre. I worked with fruit from there for four vintages, at the same time I worked with Mourvedre from old vines in decomposed sandstone and shale at Brandlin, on Mt. Veeder, from which site the depth and complexity expressed, especially in that grape, were much more interesting, by a factor of...oh, I don't know, something over 50. (Brandlin had Zinfandel that was legendary in the minds of vintners all over Napa, as well as some Charbono, and some old-vine Carignan, all of which made marvelous wines, but none as expressive, and with as much soul as the Mourvedre.)
Well gee, that was kind of a tough comparison for the poor old sandy Mou from Contra Costa. Those Brandlin Mourvedres were incredible!
Funny you should cite Brandlin for Zin, I also kind of get that baked herbs-and-fruit quality from some old vine Zins in Contra Costa, just as I did from the Mourvedre. But just some, and less so nowadays than in the 1990s. I wonder if they were just picked earlier back then...?
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
originally posted by SFJoe:
Just like Long Island, eh?originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
CNP is a big outwash terminal moraine; a lot of topo.
You are a bad man.
Joel Stewart
Joel Stewart
Do the Ridge mataro vines originate from cuttings from the Spanish town with the same name?
Steve Edmunds
Steve Edmunds
the grapes were purchased. I believe the vineyard in question has changed hands at least a couple of times, was once DuPont. Mataro has been in CA since mid-1800s, and could have come from either France or Spain. Paul Draper says that the grape was known widely, in Provence, as Mataro, and the French name, Mourvedre is more recent usage. There is a place in Spain where the grape has been grown, known as Murviedro, which sounds like it might have something to do with the French name, no?
Joel Stewart
Joel Stewart
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
They're not Ridge's vines;the grapes were purchased. I believe the vineyard in question has changed hands at least a couple of times, was once DuPont. Mataro has been in CA since mid-1800s, and could have come from either France or Spain. Paul Draper says that the grape was known widely, in Provence, as Mataro, and the French name, Mourvedre is more recent usage. There is a place in Spain where the grape has been grown, known as Murviedro, which sounds like it might have something to do with the French name, no?
And Murviedro is right down the coast from Mataro. That's interesting to read Draper's remark. So those (formerly) Dupont Mataro's could have been from France after all. Would be interesting to see the routes through which the vines and terminology traveled.
Fwiw, I just read that original cuttings may have come over with Pellier, founder of Cal's prune industry, who apparently came to Cal. in 1849 for the gold rush, gave up, then sent his brother back for prune cuttings and to fetch his wife. The resulting prunes proved to be as popular as in France, the latter drove him mad.
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
They're not Ridge's vines;the grapes were purchased. I believe the vineyard in question has changed hands at least a couple of times, was once DuPont. Mataro has been in CA since mid-1800s, and could have come from either France or Spain. Paul Draper says that the grape was known widely, in Provence, as Mataro, and the French name, Mourvedre is more recent usage. There is a place in Spain where the grape has been grown, known as Murviedro, which sounds like it might have something to do with the French name, no?
And Murviedro is right down the coast from Mataro. That's interesting to read Draper's remark. So those (formerly) Dupont Mataro's could have been from France after all. Would be interesting to see the routes through which the vines and terminology traveled.
It is commonly asserted that most of California's early vine plantings were brought over by immigrants from Italy and the Balkans. Those SF Delta vineyards are certainly old and probably date from a wave of post-Gold Rush immigration in the mid-to-late 19th C. Since the Spanish name for Mourvedre is Monastrell (or are there regional variations?) I'd doubt that the "Mataro" vineyards had a Spanish origin.
Mark Lipton