The 2025 Queen of the Sierra rosé was grown on the Rorick estate vineyard in Calaveras County at 2000’ elevation, featuring soils comprised of a layer of schist over dolomite-rich limestone. Composed primarily of Mondeuse and Zinfandel, the wine shows all of the aromatic complexity and textural presence that are the hallmarks of wines grown on the limestone of our estate. It presents a wonderful dynamic tension between an entry that displays a hint of roundness and the bright, electric acidity that makes up this wine’s backbone.

The fruit was hand-picked and whole-cluster pressed into stainless steel; fermentation was allowed to begin spontaneously with native yeast. The ferment proceeded with vigor and enthusiasm, and was completed in December following the harvest. We assembled all of the component wines in January 2026, and it was bottled unfined and unfiltered in June 2026. 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.

The 2025 Queen of the Sierra Co-Ferment estate blend was grown on the Rorick Heritage Vineyard in Calaveras County at 2000’ elevation, featuring soils comprised of a layer of schist over dolomite-rich limestone. Made up of a little bit of just about everything we grow at RHV, this category-defying, vibrant wine shows all of the aromatic complexity and textural presence that are the hallmarks of wines grown on the limestone of our estate.

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. The guest list in the fermentor included a bunch of our favorites: Barbera and Vermentino, Chenin blanc and Pineau d’Aunis, Trousseau and Chardonnay, and 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 ‘25 Queen Co-Ferment was bottled unfined and unfiltered at the end of May 2026.  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.