Forthright Wines was founded by four partners including Patrick McEvoy and Rafer Caudil who share the winemaking duties and Ed Stritch who lives in Chicago and Sel Fich who resides in London. Rather than simply being business partners, all four individuals are friends having known each other for many years – whose paths have crossed at various times in their careers including at the Celtic Crossings Irish Pub in Chicago.
Patrick moved around often due to his father’s work in the steel industry, perhaps an early influence on his love of travel – later in life he lived in Europe for 20 years. It was during his time in Europe that he fell in love with the wine culture – using home base to often visit wine regions around the continent and as he admits, “spending a lot of time in wine cafes”. He moved back to the USA in the early 2000s – his first connection to Napa Valley was through a friend who had attended a Grateful Dead Concert at Red Rocks in Colorado and had met Kevin Duncan (whose family owns Silver Oak Cellars).
Kevin who lives in Colorado told his friend that he and his family owned a winery in the Napa Valley and if they ever came to Napa, they should visit Silver Oak. Patrick took him up on his offer and in 2006 visited Napa Valley for the first time. He soon invested in a small winery brand which was focused on Merlot (Bolen Cellars); his time at Bolen gave him the opportunity to learn winemaking and make valuable winemaking and vineyard connections within the Napa Valley.
The name forthright refers to being direct, up front and honest. In old English it means to move straight forward. And it is a subtle poke at the film Sideways. A blackbird is perched on top of the F on all their wine labels and branding. “Merlot” in patois (a French dialect) means blackbird.
Patrick and Rafer create wines that are bright, fresh and lively with distinguished acidity and often lower pH. These are wines built to age and in several cases, Forthright has done the aging for their consumers – up to 4 and 5 years post vintage date before release.
Select Wines
Whites/Rosé
The 2023 Forthright Rosé of Pinot Noir, Los Carneros is deep pink in color; the bouquet is fun and fruity, yet also serious at the same time. It offers scents of watermelon jolly rancher candy, raspberry, strawberry, pomegranate, sweet dill, cran-apple, hibiscus, Tonka Bean, rose petals and a subtle hint of root beer. In a tasting of Napa Valley rosé wines of Pinot Noir, this bottling would clearly fall into the category of a crowd pleaser. And a single but simple word summarizes its character: yummy. On the palate there are flavors of raspberry, strawberry, cherry, watermelon and a hint of sarsaparilla and a light minerally character on the finish. It sports a supple and silky mouth feel and slides across the palate as easily as northern Ireland born, skater Jenna McCorkell glides across the ice.
The 2021 Forthright Chardonnay, Napa Valley is deep gold in color; the bouquet immediately offers a pronounced honeyed note including honeycomb, along with hazelnut, pineapple, papaya, mango, golden apple, yellow peaches, dried apricots, vanilla, creme Brule and a hint of warm butter to let you know that this is Chardonnay. Expecting an oaky and or buttery expression on the palate? That is not this style. Intensely flavored yes, but the palate and its perceived sweetness of fruit are complemented nicely by its rich, bright and lasting acidity. This wine offers flavors of Golden delicious apples, pineapple, mango, creme Brule, cantaloupe and yellow peaches. Its texture is supple and rounded. This bottling is saddled perfectly between restraint and the often more opulent California showings of this variety. Best enjoyed in a swimsuit, poolside on a warm but not hot summer day; our favorite city for such activity is Santa Barbara.
The 2019 Forthright Oak Knoll District Chardonnay was harvested from a vineyard on Orchard Avenue. This wine is deep golden in color; The honeyed bouquet offers pronounced notes of warm honey, caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, creme Brulé, dried apricots and canned peaches in light syrup. Smells like dessert. The aromatics also smell warm and comforting, like cozying up to a warm fire wrapped in a thick blanket on a cold winter day. The palate sports a generous and all encompassing mouth feel with a creamy and silky texture. It offers flavors of honeycomb, butterscotch, caramel, caramelized sugars and ripe stone fruits including apricot, peach, and yellow nectarine. Richly flavored. The acidity has continued to keep this wine lifted and bright, five years post vintage at the time of our tasting. The fruit-filled and memorable finish continues to persist for quite some time.
The 2019 Forthright Sauvignon Blanc, Yountville Napa Valley is medium gold in color; highly aromatic out of the gate, this wine delivers scents of spring florals, honeydew melon, guava, pineapple, baked pear, dried mango slices and Ambrosia apples. Minerally, on the palate, there are flavors of cantaloupe, honeydew melon, Bosc pear, white nectarine, Golden delicious apple and white peach. Deeper in the flavors and lingering is a note of dill and or tarragon. Its fleshy and rounded, but not creamy texture is complemented perfectly with a balanced acidity, creating a persistent brightness on the finish. This wine has aged very well, 5 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. Highly worth seeking out at this age, it drinks nicely by itself; in terms of a food pairing we would accompany it with lightly seared scallops in olive oil, salt, and pepper with finely chopped fresh basil leaves sprinkled on top. Clocks in at a refreshing 13.3% alcohol.
The 2021 Forthright Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley is deep gold with some amber tones to its color; both the color, bouquet and palate show some oxidation with aromas of walnut, pineapple, ginger, honey, over ripe cantaloupe, bruised apples, loquat and assorted caramelized sugars. The aromatic union of all these separate scents creates a sweet/sour/tangy olfactory sensation. For reference, we tasted this bottle three years post vintage. The palate offers a variety of flavors including pineapple, kumquat, honey, yellow peaches and apricot, but overall it has lost its brightness and shows as a bit flat. The mouth feel is soft and supple with plenty of flavor still showing on the finish.
The 2016 Forthright Sauvignon Blanc was sourced from the Gamble Ranch in Yountville (a noted producer of this varietal who also makes Sauvignon Blanc under the Gamble Family Wine label). Roughly 50% of this wine was fermented in concrete egg and 50% in French oak. After one year of aging, the wine was then placed in neutral French oak for another year of aging prior to bottling. They treat their Sauvignon Blanc like all their other wines – thoughtfully made with plenty of time to age before being released – with the intent to produce a wine that can be enjoyed all year round. The bouquet is appealing with a great diversity of aromatics – sweet notes including peach, ripe pear and hints of apricot. As the wine breathes picks up a caramelized sugar note, Crème brûlée along with aromas of fresh papaya. Offers more weight on the palate then many Sauvignon Blanc wines – especially those from cooler climates such as New Zealand which can be greener and grassier with higher acidity. Creamy, oily almost saline in its texture. Flavorful but balanced – shows acidity but is not tart. Lingers with flavors of red apple and mandarin with a noticeable intensity of fruit on the finish.
Reds
The story of how Forthright began to produce Pinot Noir is an intriguing one. Partner Ed Stritch visited the Napa Valley to taste through some current release Forthright wines. He remarked that he wished they produced a Pinot Noir and Patrick gently reminded him, “we are a Napa Valley producer not a Sonoma County producer and we don’t do Pinot Noir”. The conversation ended and Ed returned to Chicago. However, his request stimulated a search for a Pinot Noir vineyard in Sonoma County. Patrick and Rafer located a 10 acre privately owned vineyard off of Occidental Road not far from Dutton Ranch in the Green Valley District of the Russian River Valley Appellation (AVA). This site is planted to two clones: 667 & 777.
Patrick and Rafer began sourcing Pinot Noir from this vineyard and produced their first Pinot Noir in 2016. When Ed returned to Napa, they took him out to dinner and presented a number of bottles on their table including the appropriately named, The Stritch Forthright Pinot Noir. It took a few moments before Ed noticed this bottle dedicated to him and he was certainly honored that they followed through on his request.
The 2016 Forthright Pinot Noir, Green Valley District Russian River Valley “The Stritch” offers attractive aromatics including raspberry jam, strawberries and dried cranberries. An aromatic thread of sweetness runs throughout the bouquet along with dessert spice notes (cloves) and hint of chocolate. Terrifically balanced the palate is supple from start to finish showing mostly red fruit tones. A clean finish that is mostly about the fruit with light kiss of old cedar box lingering. This wine earned a double gold medal in the prestigious 2019 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
The 2021 Forthright Pinot Noir, Napa Valley “The Stritch” is pale ruby in color; the higher toned red fruited and ripe bouquet offers an initial hit of currant, cranberry, red cherry and plum with additional appealing spice notes that are expressed as the wine evolves in the glass including rhubarb, white pepper, clove, red licorice, old cedar wood, sage, violets, rose petals and a hint of bacon fat. We really love the aromatic layering on this wine. On the palate there are flavors of plum, raspberry, red cherry, strawberry and some of the spice characteristics on the bouquet are also echoed here including of white pepper, sage and rhubarb. We would not argue with you if you want to describe some of the palate characteristics as savory. Juicy, bright and mouthwatering, this wine features a balanced acidity. The fine-grained tannins are seamlessly integrated leaving a very subtle but pleasant drying character. In a blind tasting, we would have not guessed this wine is quite 15.2% alcohol, although there is a slight hint of warmth in the back of the palate.
The 2015 Noble BDX Blend Mt Veeder. This wine is made from grapes from a tiny 1-acre hillside vineyard just to the north of the winery. Forthright has full control over this vineyard – it is managed by both Patrick and Rafer. A true field blend (harvested all at once and co-fermented together) they never know the exact percentages of each variety in the wine every year other than this wine is always a majority Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2015 it was 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and the remainder 10% Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. An alluring bouquet – showing baking spices with darker spice and fruit notes. Also notes of tobacco leaf, chocolate and clove. Flavors of plum and red cherry. Very balanced, mouthwatering – juicy especially on the finish. Well integrated and fine-grained tannins with noticeably bright acidity.
Merlot has been much maligned in the USA (but not abroad) over the years perhaps due to the reason it grows in sites it should not be planted in and of course from the reaction caused by Sideways. The team at Forthwright are producing captivating wines from this varietal – created from a passion to show consumers that when thoughtfully made, wines from Napa Valley produced Merlot have depth, complexities and are very age worthy.
The 2014 Forthright Oak Knoll Merlot is from a Beckstoffer owned vineyard located within a short drive of the winery. Offers flavors of red cherry, cranberry and rhubarb along with earth notes mid palate. Even five years after vintage, shows tannins still wound tightly with a firm textural grip along with a darker nuance on the finish. Lingers with notes of dark spices, white pepper and tobacco leaf. Shows younger than its vintage date – this wine has plenty of life ahead of it.
The 2013 Forthright Long Barrel Reserve has nothing to do with the length of the barrels, however it is a barrel selection of their best lots of Merlot from the Andy Beckstoffer owned Oak Knoll vineyard. The bouquet features sweet aromas of dried prunes, baking/holiday spices including mocha and vanilla. A hint of menthol. Savory, meaty. Wonderfully balanced across the palate, this wine shows mostly red fruits including cranberry and cherry. Also, spicy plum. The mature tannins are slightly chewy and dusty with a pleasing texture and are not course but sport a noticeable firm grip. The finish is persistent and long lasting.
In 2019 Patrick and Rafer made small lots of a rosé from Cabernet Sauvignon and also a fortified wine from Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Until 2022, the wines were made in a 6,000 square foot cave winery in Oak Knoll on the far west side of the Oak Knoll District against the foothills of the Mayacamas mountains backing up to the edge of the Mt. Veeder sub appellation. While only about 15 minutes from downtown Napa the surrounding landscape is anything but urban as small family-owned vineyards are neighbors with few physical wineries in this part of the valley.
In 2022, Forthwright moved winemaking locations to VintEdge Winery located in the Napa Airport industrial park about 10-15 minutes drive from downtown Napa. See our notes under Lerner Project for more information about this state of the art winery. Tastings should resume by 2025, using the space at VintEdge. And as of our latest update to this review, some of their production occurs at the Caves of Soda Canyon on Atlas Peak. Stay posted for more information once we have an update.
Total production varies between vintages but is usually between 2,000 to 2,500 cases per year. The inaugural vintage bottled as Forthright was in 2013. All visits are by appointment and hosted with either Rafer or Patrick or both if the group is of a larger size. For more information, to purchase wines or to become a member, visit: www.forthrightwinery.com
Original winery
Can’t wait to retaste the Forthwright wines at VintEdge Winery soon.