Matt Rorick was in town Fri (1/20/17) and we tasted a few wines:
1. Forlorn-Hope Que Saudade Verdelho Calif (12.73%; 367 cs) 2015: Light yellow color; lots of bubbles that rapidly
dissapate; very attractive floral/pineapple/appley slight honeyed very attractive nose; fairly tart appley/
pineapple/floral light mineral/stoney honeyed flavor; long appley/pineapple/floral light stony bit honeyed finish;
no signs of CO2 on the palate nor in the glass; much better than the one over a month ago; quite a nice/
pleasant-drinking white.
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2. Forlorn-Hope Que Saudade Verdelho Calif (13.83%; 637 cs) 2014: Med.gold color; very perfumed quite fragrant/
flowery/mango/pineapple/gardenia light chalky/stony quite attractive nose; fairly tart/tangy/metallic some
floral/gardenia/pineapple slight chalky/perfumed talc/stony very perfumed flavor; very long/lingering tangy/tart
some rich/lush very perfumed/floral/gardenia/perfumed talc bit chalky/stony finish; a very perfumed & rich very
attractive white.
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8. Combe Trousseau StolpmanVnyd/BallardCanyon (13%) 2015: Med.light color; rather fragrant violets/lilacs/
bit Nebb like slight earthy/dusty/bit loamy light toasty/oak/smokey very attractive nose; lightly tart/tangy
floral/lilacs bit metallic dusty light smokey/oak bit lean/hard flavor w/ light tangy tannins; med.long bit
tart/tangy/metallic lightly floral/lilacs slight earthy finish w/ light bitey tannins; quite a nice TN but
seems kinda clumsey next to the F-H.
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9. Forlorn-Hope TrousseauNoir RorickVnyd/CalaverasCnty (12.23%; 127 cs) 2015: Very pale garnet color; very fragrant/
perfumed very strong floral/lilacs/almost Gamay-like/spicy bit earthy beautiful nose; tart very perfumed/floral/
lilacs/violets slight herbal/woodsy/mushroomy/earthy flavor w/ very light angular tannins; very long/lingering
lightly tart/tangy/metallic very floral/lilacs/violets bit earthy/herbal/woodsy finish w/ light sharp tannins;
bears some resemblance to Trousseau w/o the strong earthy/loamy character those often show;a lovely lilting
kind of wine in which you can hear JulieAndrews singing "The Hills Are Alive" if you hold your ear close
to the btl.
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10. Forlorn-Hope Mil Amores DeWittVnyd/AmadorCnty (50% Touriga/30% Tempranillo/15% TintaCao/
5% TintaAmarella; 14.5%; 47 cs) 2009
: Very dark color; very strong grapey/plummy bit Portish pungent/licorice/
very smokey lovely nose; lightly tart strong rich/lush/structured quite plummy/grapey slight Portish some
complex flavor w/ modest ripe tannins; very long strong plummy/grapey/Port-like bit licorice/pungent bit complex
finish w/ modest smooth/ripe tannins; can still go out another 5 yrs or so; much like a good Duoro dry red.
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12. Forlorn-Hope LesDeuxMathieux PetiteSirah 10BrinkVnyd/SuisunVlly (14.5%; 52 cs) 2008: Very dark color w/ no
bricking; somewhat earthy/dusty/loamy bit peppery/PS lightly spicy nose; bit soft rather hard/tannic some
earthy/dusty/loamy/rustic bit plummy/peppery/PS flavor w/ some hard/rough tannins; long rather earthy/dusty/loamy
light peppery/PS/plummy rather rough/rustic finish w/ ample hard/rough tannins; not showing much evolution and
may never soften; sorta of a TyranusaurusRex clumsily gallumping off into the sunset and may never develop into
something...or maybe it will, w/ more age.
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13. Tokaj Noblis Koverszolo (Sweet; 11.5%; Minosegi Edes Feherbor; BlueDanube) Szolobirtok 2009: Med.gold color;
quite aromatic/honeyed/pineapple/mango/spicy no botrytis slight earthy rather attractive nose; slightly sweet
soft honeyed/dried mango/pineapple slight earthy somewhat dull flavor; med.long pineapple/dried mango/slight
honeyed soft bit sweet flavor; pleasant enough sweet wine but just that; rather attractive nose but a bit
dull on the palate because of low acids.
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16. Pedro Domecq Venerable Very Rare PedroXimenez Sherry (Btl drawn: 17/6/81; Btl#34; 17%) Jerez
NV (late 1800's)
: $35.00 (CB)
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17. Forlorn-Hope DieNachzugler MokelumneGlenVnyd/Lodi (25 cs; 14.36%) Murphys 2013: Med.gold color; intense grapey/
dried mango/baked pears very passito slight earthy fairly complex nose; quite sweet slightly tart rich/lush/
mouthfilling intense grapey/dried pineapple/baked fruits/spicy slight earthy passito flavor; very long/lingering
intense grapey/raisened/dried mango/baked pears & apples quite sweet lightly tart finish; a classic example
of an Italian passito that should live forever..or at least 30 yrs for my next fruitcake.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. MattRorick is the winemaker/owner of Forlorn-Hope wnry. I have followed his wines from the very start, when
JonBonne/SFChron first brought them to my attention. LauraHamilton, Pig+Fig Cafe in LosAlamos, has also become
a big fan of Matt's wines. When she decided to do a F-H dinner in January, she convinced Matt to come out to
LosAlamos for the event last Sat night (1/21/17).
Matt was to fly in to SantaFe the Fri afternoon, so I organized a small gathering of folks at Susan's home
in SantaFe. Alas, Matt's flight out of Denver was cancelled. United was able to get a flight into ABQ, but it
didn't arrive until 8:30pm, well after our 6:30pm start time. So Laura drove down to the ABQ airport to pick him
up an delivered Matt a little before 10:00pm. It was a long day for Matt, but he gamely joined us, had some
ChoucrouteGarni and then the highlight of the evening, my 30-yr old fruitcake (reportedly separately) and the
ancient PedroDomecq PX Sherry Venerable. We finally folded the tent a bit after midnight.
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2. QueSaudade:When the '15 arrived back in Dec, I immediately tried it. It was a very bizzare wine, loaded w/
CO2, and pretty vapid. I thoroughly trashed the wine, the best thing I could find about it was the lovely
fractals the CO2 bubbles formed on the surface. My review on 12/4/16:
Originally Posted By: "TomHill"
Tried this last night w/ leftovers:
1. Forlorn-Hope Que Saudade Verdelho Calif (12.78%; 367 cs; Estate/Calaveras + DeWitt/Amador + VistaLane/Lodi;
12 mo. in neutral 500 litre puncheons + SS) Murphys 2015
: Pale yellow color rather cloufy/hazy; some light floral/Verdelho bit chalky/perfumed talc rather light/delicate nose; lightly tart/tangy/metallic no frizzante or dissolved CO2 obvious; light floral/Verdlho slight chalky/perfumed talc/stony delicate almost eviscerated flavor; med.short lightly tart/metallic/tangy light floral/Verdelho bit stony/perfumed talk rather delicate/eviscerated finish; very delicate/light white bordering on vapid; the next day at room temperature, it seemed quite soft & vapid. $26.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This is one seriously bizarre wine. When I pulled the cork, there was no obvious "pop" that you get from a white "refreshed" w/ CO2.There was no obvious out-gassing as the wine set in the btl. When I poured the first glass, there were a lot of tiny bubbles flowing down in the wine & collecting at the btl/wine interface in a ring around the outside. When you swirled the btl around & around vigorously standing upright, there was a release of very tiny bubbles that collected in a disk in the center of the vortex of the swirling wine. This disk would regularly unleash fingers that made the pattern look like the AndromedaGalaxy. These fingers would sometimes release and hook up w/ the ring of bubbles at the wine/btl interface, sometimes retract back into forming a circular disk. And just below the surface of the wine in the btl, there would appear a slimy flocculant rope of white cloudiness.
I spent (wasted) almost 30 minutes totally mesmerized by these patterns on the surface of the wine when I swirled. After about several minutes of this disk swirling in the gentle vortex of the wine, it would spread out and attach itself to the ring of tiny bubbles at the wine/btl interface. And then I take a swallow from the glass and go back and swirl the btl again. Sorry I am such a doofus...so mesmerized that I forgot to take a video w/ my iPhone. Next btl.
As a student of chaos theory, the pattern in Matt's wine were visually stunning. Clearly these are fractals and can be absolutely beautiful. See Pickover's book:
PickoverFractals
to see some of these beautiful fractal patterns.
The wine clearly has some issue with CO2. Yet there was no obvious (to me) CO2 on the palate. No continual release of CO2 bubbles. The bubbles were very tiny, about the size of those in a sparkling wine, but only released when you'd agitate the wine. Truly bizarre.
The wine is not a bad wine. I just wish it had a bit more impact on the nose and the palate. Though not on the eviscerated side as you'd get from grapes harvested too early, it was very delicate and pushing the envelope into vapid territory. Look forward to see what happens in 6 mo. and going back to try an earlier version.
As a kid (not so long ago), my Mom would scold me if I played w/ my food. Were she here last night, I'm certain she would soundly scold me for playing w/ my wine.
Tom

I, of course, sent my review to Matt and he had absolutely no explanationwhere the CO2 was coming from. The wine
should have been totally stable going into btl. He had not had a similar experience w/ any of his btls. So I
wanted to try another btl w/ Matt. This 2'nd btl was totally unlike the first, CO2-laden, btl I had. Matt had
no explanation for why my first btl was CO2-laden.
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2. DieNachzugler: Laura wanted a dessert wine for her dinner but, alas, it had been dome time since Matt had made
a dessert wine. He just happened to have in barrel this wine, so sent 4 750ml btls to her.
The grapes come from the MokelumneGlen vnyds from which he draws his GemischerSatz wine. Grapes are Bacchus/Kerner
and two other German varieties. Matt got a call late in the season that they still had some of these grapes, now
getting pretty ripe, and would he like them? He stalled around a bit, they went unsold, and finally, shortly
after Thanksgiving, he harvested them. The grapes were very raisened but no signs of botrytis or any other kinds
of mold & rot. Because there was so much raisening, there was precious little juice yielded.
The release for this dessert wine has not yet been decided. He was going to price it about $25/hlf btl, but I
think I convinced Matt it was worth at least $35/hlf, if no more.
This is a classic example of an Italian passito, non-Muscat, wine...a genre I think should be pursued more
in Calif. It reminded me quite a lot of the Maculan Breganze Torcolato passito wine, or a few of the Friuli Picolit
passitos I've had. This is a wine F-H fans must buy when it's released. And thank TomHill for getting the price
up where it belongs.
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3. TrousseauNoir: These two were an interesting comparison. I liked the Stolpman quite a lot when I first opened it.
But, then, the F-H rendition sort of blew it a away. A much lighter wine, but an astounding fragrance & perfume
that made the Stolpman seem a bit on the oafish side. The old F-H lament: "I shoulda bought more".
There's plenty of TrousseauGris (Grey Riesling) around. but not as much TrousseauNoir. Matt says there is quite
variable color in TN, very much a clonal effect and a function of site.
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4. Koverszolo: This is a grape that is indigenous to Transylvania but also found to a small degree in the Tokaj region
of Hungary, where it almost became extinct after phyloxera. Hungarian for "fat grape", it is susceptible to
botrytis. Obviously a grape they should be planting all up&down the coast of Calif.
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5. LesDeuxMathieux: This was a one-off joint effort w/ MattRorick and MattDees/Jonata. Grapes came from the Tenbrink
Vnyd in the SuisunVlly. AbeSchoener made an agreement w/ the Tenbrinks that only he (and they) could do a vnyd-
designate of the PS. Hence the 10Brink on the F-H label.
Tom