Light gold and definitely cloudy. A freed-up honey-tea releases on opening, dragging a bread-dough pet-nat alive-ness through fresh-tilled floral beds not yet blooming. Everything settles down into that comfortable envelope-adhesive natural wine haze, still churning out light floral and middle-eastern meat spices.
I’ve had these wines–and loved them–but this is the first time I have had whole bottles of them in my hands in front of a keyboard. The craze for German and Austrian whites and their French compadres have released a plethora of interesting bottles onto the market–many of them produced right here in California. I have largely been unimpressed. It goes without saying the majority of these offerings carry the *natural wine* sticker (it’s an invisible sticker, but impossible to ignore). The surprising fact to me is how many of these wines are being produced in areas around the fringes of mainstream wine production. This one, for instance, is from Calaveras County from Lodi fruit.
In the mouth, dull green apricot–while they’re still crisp–herds peach-pit and pear through a maze of Amaro bitters, and–dare I say–tannin? Round and chalkily bitter, with slight tennis ball lingering… If you can find it, I highly recommend it.
2015 FORLORN HOPE Gemischter Satz Mokelumne Glen Vineyard Lodi 12.8
Stephen McConnell 