Forlorn Hope 'Queen of the Sierra' Amber Field Blend 2024

Profile & Story

Forlorn Hope Wines is a California producer devoted to what founder Matthew Rorick calls honest and pure estate wines — approachable in price and in the glass — built on organic farming, hand-harvesting, spontaneous native-yeast fermentation, and minimal intervention. This amber, skin-contact 'Queen of the Sierra' bottling blends Verdelho, Albariño, Muscat, and Chardonnay grown on the Rorick Heritage Vineyard in Calaveras County, at 2,000 feet on schist over dolomitic limestone. Fermentation took place in open-top vessels using a mix of destemmed and whole-cluster fruit, including a portion of Muscat fermented carbonically and Vermentino left sealed in egg for four months, before aging in neutral barrique and stainless steel; the wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined with no new oak or additives beyond minimal sulfur.