April Wine Tasting Featuring Chris Cottrell of Bedrock Winery

April Wine Tasting 
Featuring Chris Cottrell of Bedrock Winery

The Wine and Cheese Place
7435 Forsyth Blvd, Clayton MO
Tuesday April 7th starting at 6pm
$40 per person

Reservations required
No cancellations
Click here to make reservations now
Back in 2014 I wrote the following about Bedrock Winery:
“Over the past 3 years few wineries have consistently impressed me the way Bedrock has. You can pick any wine out of their lineup and it will way over deliver at the price point. Right now if I were forced to pick one California winery to drink for the rest of the year hands down it would be Bedrock.”-Aaron Zwicker TWCP
I gotta say my mind hasn't changed.
Bedrock consistently makes some of California's best and most expressive wines, they let the vineyard and vintage speak for themselves. This is a wonderful opportunity to taste the Bedrock line-up with Chris Cottrell, Partner/Consigliere of Bedrock Winery. 

Line Up to Include*

• Bedrock “Bedrock Vineyard” Heritage Red
• Bedrock “Old Hill” Heritage Red
• Bedrock “Evenghelo” Heritage Red
• Bedrock Cabernet Sauvignon Monticello Vineyard

*Our final tasting line-up will be determined by the current releases in April but rest assured you will get to taste 8 amazing wines.



Chris Cottrell
Partner/Consigliere
Chris Cottrell was born in Staten Island, New York December 19th, 1985, thanks to his amazing mother Rita Fleming Castaldy.

His early foray into the finer side of consumables was through food, inspired by shows like Great Chefs, Great Cities, Molto Mario and Good Eats. Rita made it a point to take young Christopher out to restaurants from a very young age. “Experiences are worth more than things,” she would recite. But “things” had a way of appealing to Chris as well—his pre-teen birthday requests included an All-Clad stainless steel sauté pan and sushi kit. By 15 he had landed a stock boy job at the local beer store, already developing a fascination with craft brews.

When Chris moved to Manhattan for college, he quickly realized that New York offered many pleasures for a young man finally living on his own. However, money and lots of it was required, so a week after his 18th birthday, Chris scoured Craigslist in search of a legitimate job. There, he found a stock and delivery boy position at Pet Wines, a small neighborhood store on the Upper East Side run by Phil Kotek, a man who cared deeply about the wines he sold. (For example, Veuve’s ubiquity had no impact on Phil, whose Champagne shelves were instead stocked with an array of grower Champagnes).

It was at this small neighborhood shop that Morgan and Chris first crossed paths and quickly became partners in crime. Meanwhile, Phil and Morgan began Chris' education in the wines of the world and what made them special. Sadly, Pet Wines closed a year and a half later. Consumed with wine geekiness and a continued interest in earning some spending money, Chris sought out another store and found the newly opened Crush Wine Co.

Crush Wine Co. was a very different store—sleek and modern with a huge selection of fine wines. Chris was overwhelmed and humbled with the realization that he knew a lot less about wine than he thought (something that continues today), but he took up this challenge and flourished there working under Lyle Fass, Tom Stephenson, Joe Salamone, Stephen Bitterolf, Ian McFadden and the big boss, Bobby Schagrin. All had a huge influence on Chris’ wine and life education; in this incredibly generous environment, bottles—especially older ones—were opened religiously.

Chris worked at Crush from 2005 to early 2013, foregoing his original plans to attend law school, eventually becoming a full-time fine wine buyer and salesperson. Those eight years were a whirlwind of great wine, education, and travel.

Despite the demands of his fast paced job, Chris would join Morgan at his newly established Bedrock Wine Co. a couple times a year, often lending a hand at harvest and feeling what it felt like to wake up, rather than hit a pillow, at 5 AM. These trips were therapeutic and educational, reminding Chris that wine was not just a commodity but, a product expressing history, place and personalities.

In 2011 Morgan called Chris and said casually, "we should make a wine together." That conversation (and more bottles of good wine than one might care to admit) led to Under The Wire, a partnership project that focuses on single-vineyard, single-vintage sparkling wines inspired by the grower champagne movement.

As the 2011 Under the Wire developed in bottle and Bedrock Wine Co. continued to find success, Morgan suggested to Chris it was perhaps time to move across the country and join Bedrock. About a year later Chris, sacrificing a goat and pledging allegiance to Joel Peterson and the old vines in a ceremony reminiscent of the Sopranos scene where Christopher gets “made,” joined Morgan formally and became a partner in Bedrock Wine Co. as the first “outsider” to become part of the business.
The company, and friendship, has only grown since.