2021 Fine Disregard Del Barba Mataro, Contra Coast County, California

The nose leads with crushed blueberry and violet over cracked black pepper, dried lavender, and a mineral note that reads like warm sand and crushed rock. Light-footed on the palate but deceptively concentrated, blue and purple fruit strung along fine, spicy tannin with a savory herbal edge. The finish is peppery and faintly saline, tapering rather than gripping. Around 13% ABV that drinks even lighter. Mataro is just the old California name for Mourvèdre, and it only shows up on a label when the fruit comes from genuinely old vines. Del Barba delivers: own-rooted, planted in the pure sand of Oakley in the 1920s, in what is now the literal backyard of the Del Barba family and one of the last historic Contra Costa vineyards holding out against suburban sprawl. Fine Disregard is the project of Mike Schieffer and Kara Maraden — Kara is Director of Viticulture at Foley Family Farms, which is why ungrafted fruit this old arrives clean and in balance. The winemaking is minimal-intervention, so the pepper and the sand-driven lift are the site talking.