2017 Blanc de noir

This bottle has sentimental value to us at Forlorn Hope. It is the first wine that Matthew and Mara made together. With Mara’s love for rich, classic sparkling wines – yeastiness, mouthfeel, fruitfulness – she asked Matthew if they could shave off a couple of tons of grapes to make a blanc de noir made from 100% Pinot noir grapes. Matthew – being a lover of less traditional bubbles – reluctantly agreed. The idea was to let it develop a richness only found from extended time on lees, but not letting it go so far that one might think they are drinking a fresh loaf of bread.

You need patience to allow a wine to fully reach its character. Each year – despite anticipation and excitement – a bottle would be sacrificed to taste, and note its development from the previous year. Finally, after 7 years it had elevated to a point where it was decided it was time to disgorge, rest post disgorgement for several months, and release to your table in time for the holidays.

The result is an Extra Brut style of sparkling wine.  It has body with mouth-filling structural texture, a clean backbone of acidity, and the delicate sweetness of red summer berries.

The grapes were picked by hand in late August of 2017 and went directly into the press as whole clusters to be pressed very delicately. The resulting juice was moved off of heavy sediment and into neutral barrel where it fermented and aged until the following August. It was then tiraged (the process that makes the wine sparkle) and the wine was stored it on its side for maximum lees contact ever since.

A NOTE ABOUT THE ARTIST

This is the third piece of art by Swiss based artist Vronika Von Manz that we have used in our sparkling wine collection. It is titled The Birds Nightsong and was created as a copper plate etching, transferred to paper via manual press. Although small as a label, we love that the artist’s hand has been preserved in the printing process where you can see the fine scratch marks within the illustration. More of her work can be found at vronivonmanz.ch