1998 Cabernet Sauvignon

The style of Ric Forman wines is explained by the fact that Forman especially enjoys right-bank Bordeaux "and the only chardonnay I can drink is from Chablis." Forman has recently bought all new equipment, including a gentler crusher, for the 2001 harvest. He plans to discontinue his separate merlot bottling; instead, he will use the best of the merlot in a special proprietary red wine, and downgrade his lesser cabernet and merlot into his second label, Grand Roche. Forman does not believe in doing extended maceration. "This would compromise the bright red fruit qualities we get here, and would give the wine a more reduced chocolate and coffee character. Besides, the tannins here are ripe enough to begin with." Forman continues to give his wines a light fining and filtration; he remains convinced that wines without organic sediment are more likely to age gracefully.

During the course of my visit with Ric Forman, this veteran winemaker expressed his opposition to what he described as "huge-alcohol, unfiltered, cloudy wines with uncertain aging potential." As Forman explained, "there are two kinds of sediment in wine: inorganic sediment, which is color precipitation and is normal, and organic sediment like yeasts, bacteria and pigments still in solution. This second kind of stuff basically rots in the bottle and detracts from the ageability of the wine. It's bad to overdo filtration, but it's necessary to bottle a clear wine without organic sediment. It's essential not to hurt a wine's components if one is to capitalize on the wine's potential." Forman admits his tastes have changed over time and that he is now going for softer tannins and richer mouth feel by picking later. "I don't like shrill wines; at home I drink mostly merlot, especially Pomerol. One of the reasons you need fully mature grapes is so you don't have to do very long macerations to get big, broad flavors because that risks losing the fruit."