Brian Loring's Wine Spectator Blog
RE: Rabbit Ridge Cabernet/Mourvedre Grapes
On October 24, 2008, Brian Loring shared this blog of his with Rabbit Ridge in which he talks about the quality of fruit
he is buying from Erich Russell...
"As I mentioned in my last post, we're trying our hand at making a Cabernet/Mourvedre blend this year. Given the craziness of the
2008 harvest, it shouldn't be surprising that we've run into problems with our Mourvedre. All I can say is that we're extremely
lucky to be working with a grower like Erich Russell, or our hopes of getting any Mourvèdre this year would have probably been
pretty slim.
Erich has a shared love of the wines from Bodegas El Nido, so he's been as excited about our side project as we have. Erich got
us some amazing Cabernet Sauvignon from his super steep, limestone hillside. The Cab had the tiniest berries I've ever seen — and
a brutally low yield of about one-third of a ton per acre. Super intense stuff.
The issue with the Mourvedre has been trying to get it ripe. The weather has been uncharacteristically cool in the Paso Robles
area this year, and as a result most growers are reporting that their Mourvedre isn't ripening. Erich has been trying to get
us super ripe fruit from the start, so he'd already thinned his crop way back early on. Sadly, the Paso area got hit with an
unusual late season frost a week or so ago, and in most vineyards, any remaining canopy (leaves) was destroyed.
Erich was "lucky" in that only half the Mourvedre block got hit. He graciously picked that half for himself to make a rose.
And since the remaining half of the block was still behind in ripening, he dropped even more fruit. I think he's at one
cluster per vine right now. Erich's doing everything he can to get us some killer fruit, despite the dollar cost to him.
Thankfully the weather looks to be co-operating (finally), and we should have at least 10 days of nice, warm weather.
Both Erich and I have our fingers crossed.
It's this type of dedication to quality that sets some growers apart. We've been extremely lucky to have hooked up with
people like Erich Russell. He and our other great growers make us look good."
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