As has been the tradition for the past twenty years, Wine Spectator has unveiled its Top 100 list just in time for the holidays. The list is a carefully curated selection of wines from around the world, picked by magazine editors from the thousands of wines they have tasted and reviewed throughout the year. Oenophiles keep the list in their back pocket (and now smartphones) as a guide to must-try bottles.
This year, a handful of homegrown Sonoma County wines and producers made the top 100 cut, including a field blend of Zinfandel, Carignane, Mourvèdre, Syrah, and Alicante Bouschet from Sonoma’s Bedrock Wine Co., which was named among the 10 best wines of 2018.
Wine Spectator’s senior editor Tim Fish, a Sonoma local, praised Bedrock Wine Co.’s 2016 Bedrock Heritage Sonoma Valley, and called it “a knockout red, focused and well-built but loaded with personality.” The wine is produced from 120 year-old vines by the family of publisher William Randolph Hearst.
“We are stoked that a wine so rich in Sonoma Valley history received such an honor,” said winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson, who inherited his passion for working with historic vineyards from his father, Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Winery fame.
Twain-Peterson knows the Bedrock vineyard like the back of his hand, having mapped and identified each of the 16,279 vines that reside on the 152-acre Glen Ellen vineyard.
“It is wonderful recognition for the few remaining ancient, genetically diverse, and richly storied old vineyards of California,” says Twain-Peterson, “that a field-blend of 27 different varieties stands alongside some of the greatest wines of the world is a real thrill for those of us who work every day to rehabilitate and preserve these increasingly scarce sites.”
Click through the above gallery to see which other Sonoma County wines made the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 List.