1. rootdown Mourvedre DryBoneRanch/AmadorCnty/Josephine (12.1%; 5'th root) RootdownWineCllrs/Sebastopol 2017: Med.dark color w/ slight bricking; strong plummy/Mourv/ripe/slight licorice slight Amador/briary/ripe light pencilly/oak fairly interesting nose; rather soft/flabby plummy/Mourv/licorice bit Amador/overripe/briary/bit Zin-like pleasant enough flavor w/ light soft tannins; med.long soft/plummy finish that mirrors flavor; speaks lightly of Mourv and AmadorCnty but a rather unthrilling/simple expression of Mourv; probably past its peak & going nowhere.
I have no idea what the Josephine on the label represents.
__________________________________________
More rottleskiff from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. I said about the '18's back in June '20:
rootdown is the effort of MikeLucia, formerly of Copain. I met Mike at an event at LimerickLane and was quite struck by his passion for his winemaking. The name “rootdown” comes from his interest/focus on the interaction of the vines with the soil, and less on the growing conditions/weather. He sources from only organic vnyds. He doesn’t advertise as such, but would be regarded as a “natural” winemaker. But his wines were all perfectly clean w/ no natty character.
I liked all of Mike’s wines in this shipment. They were varietially correct and spoke of their origins. That said, they left me just wanting a little more. A bit more impact & intensity. A bit of rowdiness from them. A bit more distinctive. I’ll buy them again.
Mike gets a lot of his grapes from ColeRanch in Mendocino & he's a partner in the Ranch. ColeRanch is the smallest single-vnyd AVA in Calif. Alas, I've not gone back to try any of his recent wines. He has since focused his efforts on Jura-style wines coming from ColeRanch.
Tom