Tues (4/1) Visiting w/ HardyWallace/Dirty&Rowdy
When I looked at my schedule for Tues shortly before my trip, I realized that my Tues morning was badly
underscheduled. What to do? So I hastly arranged a visit that morning w/ HardyWallace, located in the
PunchDown facility (former home of MikeOfficer) just a few blocks from my motel. Hardy got his initial fame
by being selected by Murphy-Goode to start up a social media program for them. He then went on to start up
w/ his partners the Dirty&Rowdy wnry. I'd heard a number of good things about what Hardy was doing, so I
thought I might take a look w/ my own eyes. Certainly glad I did. I'd never had any of Hardy's wines, but I
knew he'd made a skin-contact Semillon, which is what attracted my interest to him.
What I didn't know was his great interest in Mourvedre. An interest that, apparently, was inspired by
RonMansfield's assertion that "Mourvedre shows terroir more than any other grape variety". Hmmm...where have
I heard a claim like that made before (for Riesling/PinotNoir/Nebbiolo/Cabernet/whatever)??? Hardy seems
very passionate about using Mourvedre to display various terroirs about Calif. From the ones I tasted, he seems
to be doing just that.
Since Hardy makes such precious little wine, w/ not a huge stash to taste people on; he recently purchased
a CoraVin and I was his first use for tasting some of his older wines. For this kind of use, CoraVin makes
ultimate sense. You can serve multiple samples from the same btl, over several week's time. and know that the
wine is suffering little, if any, deterioration.
So I tried from (mostly) CoraVin:
1. Dirty&Rowdy Mourvedre AltaMesaVnyd/SantaBarbaraHighlands/Ventucopa 2012: Lighter color than expected;
quite perfumed/light plummy/almost Pinotish like character w/ light/graceful tannins.
2. Dirty&Rowdy Mourvedre RosewoodVnyd/UkiahVlly 2012: Restrained lightly plummy/Mourv rather dusty/earthy/
old-vine slight Mendo/tomatoey bit clunky character w/ light tannins; speaks of Mendocino.
3. Dirty&Rowdy Mourvedre ShakeRidgeVnyd/AmadorCnty 2012: Riper/richer more mainstream/plummy Mourv w/
light/balanced tannins.
4. Dirty&Rowdy Semillon NapaVlly 2013: Hardy chose to make his Semillon using skin-contact because he thinks
that shows the vnyd terrior stony character right there along the Napa river. Lightly phenolic w/ strong stony/
mineral/earthy and light green olive/Semillon perfume.
5. Dirty&Rowdy PetiteSirah RosewoodVnyd 2012: Rather delicate/floral perfumed light-on-its-feet almost
Beaujolais-like character; slight Mendo/earthy/tomatoey; not the usual bombastic Calif rendition of PS.
6. Dirty&Rowdy Mourvedre AltaMesaVnyd 2013: Bit tight/closed rather delicate/perfumed slight Pinotish
in character.
7. Dirty&Rowdy Mourvedre ShakeRidgeVnyd 2013: Stronger more plummy/ripe slight earthy Mourvedre character;
seems a bit tight/closed.
Both of the '13 Mourvedres had just been bttld and weren't really showing much now.
So now I have a much better feel for what Hardy is doing at D&R. I was quite taken by the skin-contact Semillon,
a variety I feel is greatly neglected in Calif. The wine was only lightly phenolic in character and not nearly so
tannic/austere/bitter as many of them can be. It has great structure and I see no reason why it won't go out
ten yrs or more. I'd love to see what he can do w/ some old-vine Livermore Semillon.
But it was his Mourvedres that was the biggest surprise to me; much different from what I expected. Most
Calif Mourvedres are pretty big & ripe, w/ lots of plummy/licorice/boysenberry character. Not a variety that
I'd choose if what I wanted to display was Calif's varied terroirs. Hardy's Mourvs were much more elegant/
restrained, quite perfumed/fragrant almost Pinotish in character. Not wines that'll play well in Monktown.
I liked the wines quite a bit and they forced me to rethink what Mourv in Calif is capable of achieving.
I'm looking forward to following them in the future.
Whilst we were tasting, this young lady came striding across the floor there at PunchDown. I immediately
recognized her, but couldn't come up w/ a name. When Hardy introduced us, MeganGlaab/RymeCllrs, everything
immediately clicked. "Of course I know Megan...followed her from the very start". We chatted a bit & hope
to meet up again at FriuliFest this Summer. She makes some of her wine there at PunchDown.
Tom