WTN: Cal-varelhão

This was an odd one: a Forlorn Hope 2014 Alta Mesa "Suspiro del Moro" (Alvarelhão), Silvaspoons Vineyard. $26.00, 13.12% ABV. Judging by the ungenerous aroma and the first taste, you'd think this was going to be a cheek-sucking tannic monster, but it loosens its grip in the mouth, showing a little bit of inky-dark blueberry and plum fruit, tobacco, and spice, and then becoming vanishingly round and soft on the back end, finishing -- maybe I should say "dissipating" -- surprisingly quickly. I can't really find a point of reference for this wine, which makes it intriguing, but to be honest, I also found it a little tiresome to drink. We decided to save the last 200ml to try again tonight, thinking some respiro might make it less muerto....

I drink a lot of Portuguese wine and still wouldn't know what to expect from a mono-varietal Alvarelhão. It shows up in blends most of the time, and not very often at that. The only one I could find is here: http://osvinhos.blogspot.com/search/lab ... elh%C3%A3o , and that one isn't even mentioned on the producers website.

I'm reassured to hear that, Joe!

"Persistência curta" certainly captures part of it... as for its development, we didn't get to it last night (it was an 80-proof kind of workday) but I'll report back if there was any change for the better.

I've been thinking about trying some wines from Forlorn Hope but the only one available locally is the Alvarelhão, but after your note I think I'll wait until something else becomes available. California appears to still have some vineyards that must date back to European immigrants from various places - do you have any idea how old the Alvarelhão vines are?

I'm not surprised that that Portuguese Alvarelhão is from Campolargo - he seems to be attracted to growing odd varieties (for Bairrada - where the most representative red grape is Baga and whites are often Maria Gomes and Bical). For instance he actually makes a decent Pinot Noir - I think I posted a TN on this board just because of the novelty.

I'm not sure about the age of the Alvarelhão vines, Joe, but I've never heard Portuguese varieties listed among the contents of the old, early 20c. immigrant vineyards, and Forlorn Hope's website does say that the grape is native to Iberia and "of late taken root in Alta Mesa," so I suspect it's a recent planting. I did find this article about the Silvaspoons vineyard in Alta Mesa (which is located within the Lodi AVA), which suggests that Mr. Silva grows a pretty wide range of Portuguese grapes: Souzão, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão, Tinta Roriz, Alvarelhão, and Trincadeira.

http://www.lodiwine.com/blog/silvaspoon ... us-r-label

(I also see that Matthew Rorick of Forlorn Hope is a lapsed Ph.D. student in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, where I teach. As someone who's always fantasized about leaving academia to go bake bread in the woods somewhere, it's nice to see someone who had the... good sense? courage? resources? to do something like that and make it work.)

http://www.vinography.com/archives/2013 ... le_wi.html