Forlorn Hope "Queen of the Sierra Co-Ferment" California 2023

FROM FORLORN HOPE:

THE PRODUCER: The Queen of the Sierra wines are a celebration of the steep limestone and schist slopes of Rorick Heritage Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills.

Made from 100% Estate grown fruit, they are organically farmed, hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented by native yeasts, unfiltered and unfined, with nothing added but minimal effective sulfur. These are honest and pure California estate wines made with soul that are approachable in price as well as in the glass.

THE WINE: What’s the big idea with a co-ferment? At RHV, we love the aromatic exuberance we find in our white varieties, and the reds can bring a bounty of bright fruit flavors to the wines they produce. So why not put those things together?? You end up with the best of both worlds – the co-ferment stands in the ground between red, white, and rosé. It’s eminently chillable because it has lighter tannins than a regular red, it’s got more flavor and aroma than a rosé by virtue of its longer skin contact, and it has all the savory tang of the limestone soils and cold nights here at RHV. So how did we do it? We picked reds, we picked whites, and we put them in the fermenter together to get the party started. As it happened, varieties from similar historical regions paired up for picking time: Albariño and Tempranillo hit it together, as did Barbera and Vermentino, Chenin blanc and Pineau d’Aunis, Trousseau and Chardonnay, and (let’s hear it for 1880s California!) Zinfandel and Verdelho. We pressed the ferments somewhere between halfway dry and all the way dry, depending on how they tasted and how grippy they were, and then the wines were put down to neutral 227L barrique or blended together in stainless. The ‘23 Queen Co-Ferment was bottled unfined and unfiltered at the end of May 2024. 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.