Winemaker Notes
Bright purple-red. Aromas of Santa Rosa plum, red perfume, cranberry, cedar, vanilla and red florals. Soft round entry, medium to heavy body. Enticing acidity that dances on the tongue. Gently firm and lingers through the palate. Cranberry,pomegranate, lilacs, fresh plum, light toasty oak. Long and persistent.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Mourvèdre can make marvelous wine when sourced from old vines in a sunny region such as Provence, southern Spain, Australia, or, as in this case, the warm area east of San Francisco Bay. This release shows an exceptionally delicious and interesting interplay of red and black fruit and more savory notes recalling carpaccio and black olives. It's a compelling wine for warm-weather grilling or rich winter stews.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is fresh, with aromas of bramble mulberry, huckleberry, mint, violets, dark chocolate and dried chicory on the nose. Flavors on the palate are blackberry, black currant confiture, wintergreen mint, orange zest and simmering spices, with a juicy, dry finish.
Full of ripe fruit, and robust, earthy goodness, Mourvèdre is actually of Spanish provenance, where it still goes by the name Monastrell or Mataro. It is better associated however, with the Red Blends of the Rhône, namely Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvèdre shines on its own in Bandol and is popular both as a single varietal wine in blends in the New World regions of Australia, California and Washington. Somm Secret—While Mourvèdre has been in California for many years, it didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s when a group of California winemakers inspired by the wines of the Rhône Valley finally began to renew a focus on it.
A large Northern California appellation centered on the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay AVA falls within the larger Central Coast AVA. The smaller appellations of Livermore Valley, Pacheco Pass, San Ysidro District and Santa Clara Valley AVAs fall within the San Francisco Bay boundaries, and all produce high-quality Central Coast wines.