Description

Grown on the Rorick estate vineyard in Calaveras County, on soils comprised of a layer of schist over dolomite-rich limestone. Elevation of the vineyard is 2000’. Mataro has a long history in California’s viticultural tradition, with many pre-Prohibition plantings still under cultivation across the state; while the newer French synonym ‘Mourvèdre’ might be more widely recognized we pay homage to California’s viticultural pioneers as well as the origin of the vine by using its original name of Mataro. <br. All Forlorn Hope fruit is hand-picked; in 2018 we opted for 100% stem inclusion in the ferment. The fruit was given vigorous pigeage after pick and fermented in a small open-top vessel. The must received pigeage and/or punchdowns twice daily; fermentation lasted 14 days at which time the wine was pressed down to 500L puncheons of neutral oak. The wine was racked off of its lees at 8 months and saw a total of 12 months elevage. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. As with all Forlorn Hope wines, no new oak is utilized, and nothing was added to the must or wine (no cultured yeast, ML bacteria, water, tartaric acid, enzymes, nutrients, etc) with the exception of minimal effective SO2.