2014 Dirty & Rowdy Family Winery Evangelho Vineyard Old Vines Mourvedre

Dirty & Rowdy Family Winery is one of the new California “garagiste” winemaking ventures with a 21st century attitude. Its founders are two youthful couples who make small-batch, so-called “natural wines” with lower alcohol content. Their wines are single vineyard bottlings of grapes that fall outside of the usual California Cabernet Sauvignon-and-Chardonnay model. Dirty & Rowdy’s first fame, for instance, has been with Mourvèdre. The winery has also made Sémillion, Melon and Petite Sirah. Grapes are sourced from Santa Barbara to Mendocino County, and the wine is made in a leased space in Santa Rosa. The exuberantly named Dirty & Rowdy was founded in 2010 by Hardy Wallace and Matt Richardson, who have backgrounds in winemaking and blogging about food and wine. In its short history, Dirty & Rowdy has attained a kind of cult status. Though its wines are released at prices far below California’s “Cult Cabs” and other allocation-only wines, Dirty & Rowdy wines nevertheless sell out and earn favorable reviews. In a typical review, Wine Spectator praised one Dirty & Rowdy wine for showing “lots of personality in a restrained style.”

Contra Costa County is a sub appellation within the Central Coast AVA. Contra Costa is the region just to the east of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. Though the area includes many square miles of suburban build-up, there are also vineyards. It is the northern edge of the Central Coast AVA, a huge wine producing area that extends from Santa Barbara County in the south to San Francisco in the north. With more than 100,000 vineyard acres, it includes parts of six counties near the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 20 smaller AVAs lie within the Central Coast AVA. Central Coast earned appellation status in 1985. Included in the appellation are parts of the counties of Contra Costa, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. Nearly every grape varietal grown in California is grown somewhere in the Central Coast AVA, though Chardonnay accounts for nearly 50% of the entire wine grape crop.

Fans of Cabernet Sauvignon appreciate Mourvèdre. It’s a full-bodied Spanish native. It is grown prominently in Bandol, France, Paso Robles, CA and many other regions. It is often blended with Grenache and Syrah and can be used to make rosé and port-style wines.