Finishing touring the Bedrock Vineyard, our glasses were now empty and we were getting thirsty again and perhaps a little hungry as well. We were ready to head back to the tent to enjoy the rest of our tasting as well as the delicious cheese, fruit and meat platter to accompany it that Aiste had put together. As we walked, Joel and Chris enthralled us with other aspects of this historic vineyard.
When we got to the tent, Emily had one more white wine for us to taste, from the Rasmussens’ Desire Lines Wine Co. Have you heard of the term “desire line”? Sometimes called cow paths, social trails, buffalo traces, among other things, to us it means leaving the expected pathway to follow one’s desires. In this case, Cody and Emily Rasmussen (they met in the second grade in their hometown in Iowa!) departed their planned paths of entering the business world to follow their desire to make wine in California in 2011, making their first wine under the Desire Line label in 2014. During this brief period, they have made exciting wines, focusing on special vineyards like Evangelho in Contra Costa County and Riesling from Cole Ranch, among others. There is much more about their extraordinary story on their website, especially if you start with their first release letter:
Spring 2018 Save the Date – How We Got Here
The first wine that Emily chose to share with us that day was their 2023 Cole Ranch Riesling. We owe much of our fondness for Rieslings due to the great ones from Bedrock Wine Co. Since Cody is their Director of Winemaking Operations, it is no surprise that we loved this one under the Desire Lines label. Aged in Austrian oak ovals, the wine had a lovely floral nose and bright hints of peach and pear with a sublime hint of sweetness on the finish. The Rasmussens have an ambition “to make the benchmark California Riesling” and this wine shows how well they are doing to achieve that goal.
The Cole Ranch AVA in Mendocino County is not only the smallest American Viticultural Area but also has just one vineyard – Cole Ranch. Planted in 1973, the Rasmussens first enjoyed a Riesling from this vineyard in 2011. In 2016, Cody and Emily left a handwritten note at the vineyard gate inquiring about purchasing grapes and the rest is history.
Then it was time to move onto the red wines.
First was a side by side tasting of wines from the Evangelho Vineyard. This historic vineyard was planted in Contra Costa County in the 1890s next to the Sacramento River Delta. Dry-farmed, the 36-acre vineyard is a true field blend of mainly Zinfandel, Mourvedre and Carignan with smaller amounts of other varieties. The setting is unusual for those of us accustomed to seeing the expansive vineyards in other California wine regions, as it is located next to a power plant in the middle of “urban sprawl”. PG&E acquired the property in 1952 and sold about one third of it to the Evangelho family, leasing them the rest of the vineyard as well. Frank Evangelho sold their share of the vineyard to Bedrock Wine Co. in 2016, ensuring that the heritage of this property would be preserved in the face of encroaching development. Bedrock continues to lease the rest of the vineyard from PG&E.
Here is a very nice and informative video from a few years ago hosted by Kwame Reed, then Economic Development Director for the City of Antioch, where he spends time with Bedrock’s Director of Viticulture Jake Neustadt at the Evangelho Vineyard:
The Ancient Vines of Antioch, CA – Evangelho Vineyards
For our side-by side tasting we sampled the 2023 Desire Lines Evangelho Red Wine and the 2022 Bedrock Wine Co. Evangelho Heritage. The Desire Lines bottling was 90% Carignan and 10% Mourvedre, showing fragrant notes of anise and cranberry on the nose and palate with medium acidity that kept one going back for another taste. The Bedrock was 60% Zinfandel and 40% Carignan, with a deep garnet color and intense plum flavor.
As a side note, the Historic Vineyard Society typically offers an annual bottling as a fundraiser and the most recent was a field blend from the 2022 Evangelho Vineyard. Emily was kind enough to bring our order with her but sadly we [Michael] didn’t think to suggest to open it to compare with the other two wines. We are looking forward to trying it soon!
To Be Continued…
Michael and Karen Perlis have been pursuing their passion for wine for more than 30 years. They have had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show them the way and after a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as they possibly could, they had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Michael and Karen do their best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers.
