2020 ValentinPineau d Aunis

The Pineau d’Aunis vines in our vineyard share a lineage with those tended by our friend and colleague in the Loire Valley, Jean-Pierre Robinot. How they came to find a home on the slopes of RHV is a tale of Pain and Glory, at its heart – and this, our first bottling of Pineau d’Aunis, has our bodies tingling all over with excitement.

Our Pineau d’Aunis was hand-picked; its whole clusters received a vigorous pigeage prior to being placed into a small open-top fermenter with 100% stem inclusion. The must received pigeage and/or punchdowns twice daily; fermentation lasted 10 days at which time the wine was pressed down to one 227L barrique of neutral oak, and a small 30 gallon tank. The wine was racked off of its lees at 12 months and saw a total of 14 months elevage. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 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.