It seems like yesterday that Ric Forman began his career, yet he is now one of California's veteran wine-makers. From his early days (nearly 20 years ago) at Sterling he has built an impressive resume. The proprietor of beautiful vineyards tucked high in the hills between the Silverado Trail and Conn Valley, he has launched a new wine, a Merlot from a vineyard called Thorvilos, that he developed along with the well-known viticulturist, David Abreu. The 1995, which had just finished malolactic fermentation, blew me away, but the wine will not be in the marketplace for several years. Like Chateau Montelena and Stony Hill, Forman is one of the few members of the old school of California Chardonnay wine-making. Harvesting very ripe fruit, blocking any malolactic fermentation (which means the wine has to be sterile filtered), Ric Forman produces a crisp, honeyed-apple, spring flower blossom-scented wine, that epitomizes the natural fruit character of the Chardonnay varietal. It is always an elegant, graceful wine that offers a Chablis-like alternative to the fatter, more creamy-textured, malolactic Chardonnays. Forman was generous enough to do a vertical tasting of his Chardonnays to try and convince me of their ageability. Certainly the effects of sterile filtration preclude the possibility of any real bouquet development. Older Chardonnays that were still in good shape, such as 1984, 1985, and 1986 revealed no aromatics, but on the palate they all revealed various degrees of honeyed apple and citrusy fruits, as well as fresh and lively personalities. But if readers are "nose" people who like to be set up and seduced by a wine's aromatics, they will likely be disappointed by the old, stale paper-scented bouquets. Nevertheless, these wines do hold up in the mouth. I suspect most malolactic Chardonnays would be dead at age 10, but how important is ageability in Chardonnays. I drink many of my California Chardonnays within hours of purchase! Tel. (707) 963-0234; Fax (707) 963-5384
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