2014 Dirty and Rowdy Mourvedre Old Vine Evangelho Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County (2/26/2016)
Each time I try a different D&R wine I end up needing to rethink Mourvèdre. Often it is because I am faced with a wine that while delicious (and disturbingly drinkable), has no touchstone with the grape I became familiar (see what I did there...) with through Bandol or some earlier California renditions. With the Evangelho I feel like I need to rethink Dirty & Rowdy. This is a wine with a sappy fruit that also has a distinct savory/umami core that I have not found in any other D&R wine. It is still a friendlier rendition of Mourvèdre than I get from just about anywhere else, but the depth and persistence of that savory element take the wine to a different level. I buy the D&R wines in quantity because they are so drinkable. Not much gets a chance to age, but they don't need to. This wine does not need age either, as it is delicious now, but it seems to have a core that wants to uncoil to bring out even further complexity. It did something special, as it kept me thinking, both while I was drinking it, and later on as I continued to try to understand it.
