For the past few weeks, I’ve been alternating between red and white wines for The Weekly Wine. This week I am mixing it up a bit and featuring a truly unique rosé, the 2015 brick & mortar Sonoma Coast Rosé of Pinot Noir. I am not a fan of Rosé as I never recovered
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from the days of White Zinfandel (1970s and 80s) sugar
y characteristics. I would not have tried this wine but I know this winemaker and his ability to create unique and different out of the box wines from traditional grape styles, Matt Iaconis stands out like a weathered veteran of the California Wine industry with a passion for quality and creativity, but he isn’t even 30 yet. He’s found the perfect balance between life and work, being a new and involved father (really good thing), and the owner/winemaker at brick & mortar wines (yes is it supposed to be lower case), where he produces small, creatively unique batches of wines from a varieties of grapes. In short he has quality figured out.
This Rose has all the characteristics of a great crisp white wine (drink it all day in the sun) but a flavor profile that yells Pinot Noir from start to finish. Oh, I forgot to mention it has no syrupy sweetness at all. It hits you from the beginning with a classic tart Pinot Noir flavor profile of slightly under ripe plum, and cassis. I even love the mystery of the Blank Front Label. You can only get this wine directly from brick and mortar but don’t wait because they have a following and all their vintages go fast. If you are interested in more detail about this wine check out my tasting notes and formal review on the Wine Review page of my blog.
Bottle Ink
Poor Robert
Poor Robert's (Wine) Almanac 
I’ve never been a fan of rose either, but you made me want to try this one.
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Robert,
Thanks for the explanation and I just figured once I saw Matt’s name that it was an NW. I have no bone to pick with NW but I thought when they changed leadership and a few of the original winemakers left that they become a bit more corporate – exactly opposite of the original concept. I particularly objected to the way they treated Jeff Stai and few other of my favorites and expressed my thoughts but never received a response.
Anyway, no grudges held and now that I’m basically retired I have lots of time to roam around the wineries here in central coast Cali. I will definitely post some reviews/ramblings in the near future as I have recently had some great red blends.
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I retired in January and now I am writing pretty much full time on a number of projects. I agree about the corporatization of NW, but I will say it is coming back with the assentation of Luke as the new president. I followed Jeff out the door as well and am part of his club getting four cases a year. Matt’s new stuff is absolutely pure gold. Just got a case of the Rose, a 2011 Pinot and a 2012 Chard. Amazing.
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Hi Robert,
I do enjoy your reviews but I am becoming a bit frustrated that you appear to focus mainly on Naked Wines. I was an archangel but gave it up when I realized how many great wines – particular Central Coast California reds- I was missing out on by having my closet full of Naked Wines. I have actually joined wine clubs for 4 different Cali wineries- 1 in Paso Robles, 1 in Temecula, and 2 in the Santa Ynez Valley. While some of them are pricier that NW wines, many are not and their quality is off the charts. For example, in 3 years i never had a decent Pinot Noir (one of my favorite wines) from NW but now drink them regularly from Laetetia Vineyards in Arroyo Grande. I would be happy to share some of my choices with you if you are interested-in fact, maybe you can have a section of your blog set up for readers to share their favorites.
NW is a great concept, and while I didn’t always agree with their decisions about winemakers and personnel, they do have a neat concept in play. But let’s not forget about the rest of the wine world that is out there outside of their walls, especially up there in the Pacific NW where you live.
Just my humble opinion…
Jeff
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Jeff I would love for you to post to my blog. If you go to the wine reviews page you will see that I have set it up so that anybody can post a wine review. If you go to the bottom of the string and hit reply(all reviews are entered as replies). post your review and I’ll index it. Please post as often as you like.
I am branching out and focusing less on Naked Wines than in the past, you will note that two of my five Weekly wines have been non-naked. I would love to be able to access more wines, but the four clubs I belong to keep me well stocked. The latest wine, Is non-naked as Matt Iaconis has his own winery now and is producing some kilter wines. I generally prefer Oregon Pinot to most of the California ones, but the brick and mortar Pinot Noir (not the one I reviewed is possibly the best I’ve ever had).
In any case, I’d love to have your reviews on the site and if you want to do a blog post on wine clubs or even a critique of NW vs others, let me know and I’ll figure out how to get you signed up as a guest blogger. I know that there is a way, but I just have’t figured it out.
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Jeff — I finally figured it out on my end. You are now an “author” on my blog and can post any wine reviews (as blogs or on the review page as a comment). I don’t know how all this works as I have never given anybody author right before so I just follow anything you post to make sure it shows up the way you intend. Have fun with this, I do. My only request, keep it wine related.
By the way what did you think of the post on El Jefe?
Bob —
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Hi Bob,
I loved your story about Jeff and his dog and enjoyed the review of his grenache as well. I hope to visit Twisted Oak one day on our way up the coast- it is a bit of a right turn on our trip to visit my son in the Bay area.
I have a bottle of Laetitia Black Label Pinot Noir opened for our Oscar viewing – this is Southern California after all, so I’m trying to blend in (no pun intended). I’ll post my review in the next day or two and hopefully it is a worthy addition to your blog. Thanks for setting me up and I look forward to contributing. We do visit a fair amount of central coast wineries and I hope to write a few words about our favorite experiences in the future.
Jeff
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Jeff — Just go to the wine reviews page and post it as a reply to the opening comment. I’ll index it and create the link to the index. If you want to try,(2) simply highlight the date at the top of your reply and copy the link. (2) hit the edit button to the original post (the index), (3) put your cursor at the end of the last index entry and hit return (4) now type the wine name and vintage date, (5) now highlight the entire name and (6) go to the top and look for the link symbol hit is and paste the link you created in step one (7) now hit enter and your lik should be live. You can’t mess up anything I can’t fix so give it a try.
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