June 2025 - California
June 2025
California
Featuring:
Forlorn Hope
Broc Cellars
California wine has undergone many faces and shapes over its 250+ year history. Originally an agricultural import by the Spanish missionaries, the wine grape was first planted by Father Junípero Serra at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769 (before the USA was even a country!). For the remainder of the 18th and start of the 19th century, California wine was primarily grown to be used as sacramental wine, using the Mission grape almost exclusively.
It was not until the 1830’s and 40’s that commercial winemaking took off. Vineyards were primarily established in Los Angeles and San Diego at this time, taking on many properties of Spanish wine at the time (including grape varieties - again, mostly Mission). With the Gold Rush of the 1840’s and ensuing population boom, Northern California vineyards began to become established. Commercial wineries followed suit, with Buena Vista Winery being founded in Sonoma 1857 and Charles Krug in Napa in 1861.
A series of events and diseases devastated wine production in Southern California in the mid/late 1800’s, which caused a large shift in production to Northern California, surrounding the populous Bay Area. Rather than descendants of Spanish Missionaries, the population was a widespread array of migrants. People from all reaches of the world came looking for their chance to strike it rich in the Sierra Foothills.
With this immigration, new grapes arrived and vineyards were planted as people spread throughout California. Native Italian, French, Swiss, German, and Balkan grapes became commonplace. With a large Chinese immigrant population, a great number found their way into the wine industry. Many helped dig cellars, build wineries, and even become winemakers. With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, however, the Chinese were forced out of the industry. Almost 150 years later, the industry is still sadly lacking in Asian American (and general non-European descent) ownership and representation.
The California wine industry roared on through the 1800’s, with thirsty prospectors and settlers creating high demand for wine and grape-based fortified products (like brandy). In the 1920’s it came to a screeching halt with Prohibition. For 13 years, wineries could only make wines for sacramental or medicinal purposes. Almost every commercial winery shuttered, with only a small handful surviving. People could still produce wine for personal consumption, so some vineyards were maintained - particularly in Sonoma County, Mendocino, and parts of the Sierra Foothills. Largely, however, the California wine industry was destroyed.
Once Prohibition was repealed, the US entered back-to-back world wars. California agriculture turned to largely focus on supporting the war effort. The wine industry languished further, with minimal investment and most of the production being focused on either bulk/jug wine or sweet/fortified wines.
Over the next twenty to thirty years, the industry continued to progress and refine itself. A major moment came in 1976, when several California wines went up against French Bordeaux and Burgundy producers in a blind tasting competition. Much to the surprise (and fury) of the French judges, California wines took home the top honors in both categories: the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and the 1973 Stag’s Leap Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. (The hilariously bad movie, Bottleshock, starring Chris Pine, Bill Pullman, and Alan Rickman, is based on this story.)
From the 80’s to the Aught’s, the California wine machine chugged on, fully cementing its place in the world of wine. In the 90’s, California’s relative production to the rest of the US peaked, with 90% of all American wines being produced in CA. (In the 80’s it was less than 70% and today it is roughly 80%.) This era of growth also coincided with the ‘Parkerization’ era (appealing to the tastes of wine critic Robert Parker, by making big, bold, oak-driven wines). This led to a general California style of wine often being seen as big, ripe, full-bodied, and high in alcohol. Zinfandels were juicy, jammy fruit bombs. Chardonnay was oaky, buttery, and rich. Cabernet Sauvignon was dense with oak and spice, deeply extracted and almost black when poured in the glass.
Like all extremes, there is eventually pushback. Often this pushback does not come on gradually, but suddenly and forcefully. Enter ‘Natural Wine’. The natural wine movement was/is partly a continuation of the organic hippie movement of the 60’s and 70’s, partly an effort to replicate the traditional methods of European winemakers, and partly a way to push back against this domineering style of wine. While many European winemakers and importers certainly adopted natural winemaking practices (or continued those practices they’d learned from their forefathers), it was really consumers in big cities like New York and San Francisco that helped pull these ideas to the forefront.
By the early 2000s natural wine came to California. Producers like Broc Cellars & Forlorn Hope, among others, were at the forefront of this movement.
Queen of the Sierras, ‘Estate White’ Calaveras County 2023
Matthew Rorick founded Forlorn Hope in 2005 with an eye towards California’s less common varieties. The innate unpopularity and traditional difficulty to sell these wines led Matt to brand the label ‘Forlorn Hope’ - named after the group of soldiers that would often volunteer to be put in the worst positions in battle in hopes of a high reward. (Such as the first soldiers to scale a ladder of a castle wall, the vanguard in a large battle, or soldiers who take up the rear in a bloody retreat.) For many years, this label was a small, one-man operation where Matt would make a few barrels of each variety each harvest. Over time production slowly grew and Matt was able to enlist a vineyard manager, assistant winemaker/sales director, and some international harvest help from his friends in Australia (where he has worked many Southern Hemisphere vintages and still goes to work almost every year).
In 2013, Matt and his family members were able to collaborate to buy what is now Rorick Heritage Vineyard (RHV) - a 75 acre piece of land in Calaveras County (near the town of Murphys). The vineyard sits at 2000’ elevation on schist with dolomite-rich limestone underneath. The team got to work converting the property to organic viticulture and planting a multitude of grapes. Today, they farm the original Chardonnay plantings plus Grenache, Chenin Blanc, Tempranillo, Zinfandel, Albariño, Verdelho, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Trousseau Noir, Grenache Blanc, and Muscat Blanc.
After some years, Rorick introduced a ‘Queen of the Sierras’ label. This line produces a white, red, rose, orange (amber) and a co-ferment (chilled red). These wines are all 100% sourced from the RHV, but rather than showcasing a single variety, they are meant to display a more broad sense of the region and its capabilities. You’ll notice grape varieties aren’t listed on the back. While they do change a bit year-to-year, they are generally all an assorted composition of the varieties listed above. (I often refer to the Amber, which we’ve had on our shelves since day 1, as a ‘kitchen sink orange’.)
This bottling, the Queen of the Sierras White, is composed of Chardonnay, Verdelho, and Muscat. The grapes are hand harvested and fermented in a combination of stainless steel and neutral oak. No new oak (which imparts secondary flavor & texture) is used in any of Forlorn Hope’s wines. All of Matt’s wines consist of only grapes/grape juice and minimal effective amounts of sulfur dioxide.
The resulting wine is a bright, primary white with layers of natural acidity and a playful textural component. It is wonderful alone or with food.
Broc Cellars, ‘Got Grapes’ Red, California 2023
Chris Brockway lived in Los Angeles and worked “editing really bad TV shows” before the draw of wine lured him to Northern California. He made his first wine - a singular barrel - in 2002 and officially founded Broc Cellars in Berkeley as a commercial winery in 2006. The idea behind Broc was to showcase heritage California varieties like Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc, Carignan, Barbera, and more. Today, the winery makes over 20 different wines and has a loyal following scattered across the country.
Chris was one of the founding members of the Berkeley wine scene - an industrial block and a half along 5th street & Gilman home to six different low-intervention, urban wineries: Broc, Hammerling, Donkey & Goat, Tessier, Lusu, and Whistler. Chris believes this location is key to Broc’s success, bringing him face to face with his customers and within arms reach of restaurants that serve his wine. On a given weekend day one can find groups of people frequenting the tasting rooms and leaving with bottles of wine.
Much like Forlorn Hope, Broc’s winemaking style can be described as ‘clean natural’ - wines that are made from grapes with lower sugar content (less ripe), higher natural acidity, and crafted without any additions besides minimally effective amounts of sulfur dioxide (a preservative). Of the two dozen wines Chris makes, a majority are blends with cheeky names: Love, Got Grapes, O’Sunshine, Ayay!, and Treb. His single varieties, which take on only a slightly more serious nature, are either named for the vineyard or a different fantasy name + grape variety.
In 2023, Broc purchased their first vineyard site, Fox Hill Vineyard in Mendocino County. This 60 acre certified organic vineyard is planted to 25 different Italian varieties and a handful of Spanish ones. While they had already sourced fruit from this vineyard and helped consult on farming for years, this purchase cemented their status as growers and winemakers, ensuring the next generation - Chris and Bridget’s young children - will be able to produce these heritage varieties for years to come.
This wine, ‘Got Grapes’, is an ever-changing homage to the unpredictability of each vintage. Broc ferments all their wines in separate lots before blending or bottling as single varieties. Often in the wine world, blending is used as a tool to ensure consistency in a certain wine from vintage to vintage. For example, they want their ‘Love Red’ to taste similar from year to year, opting for reliability rather than surprises. By tweaking the % of grapes, the harvest dates, and the winemaking techniques, they can ensure a rather consistent (but not homogenous) product that the consumer trusts will be good. ‘Got Grapes’ enjoys the art of blending, but from a totally different point of view. Here, they take grapes that may be leftovers - not in the sense that they are lesser than, but rather that they didn’t find the right home that vintage - and blend them in a way that creates a unique, singular wine for each vintage. 2022’s Got Grapes was more Barbera focused, with some Syrah and Carignan. This vintage, 2023, consists of 35% Grenache Noir, 25% Cabernet Pfeffer, 22% Nero D’Avola. 13% Carignan, and 5% Syrah. (Kitchen sink blend, anyone?) What doesn’t change is the farming - all organic, always - and the winemaking - stainless steel, concrete, neutral oak fermentation and aging, and minimal intervention otherwise.
The result is a bright, lively wine with lighthearted red fruit, a touch of savory/peppery note, and a refreshing, crushable attitude. Chill it down, fire up the grill, kick back, and enjoy all that this summer will have to offer.