The Suisun Valley lies one ridgeline to the east of Napa. The area benefits from a combination of hot days (on average, 5-7 degrees warmer than Napa at noon) and cool afternoons (a direct opening onto Suisun Bay brings maritime breezes into the area, dropping the temperature to 10-15 degrees cooler than Napa by 2 or 3pm). This allows for the full ripening of tannin in Forlorn Hope's Petite Sirah, while retaining natural acidity and aromatics -- and a balance difficult to find in this variety. Hand-harvested and 100% whole-cluster fermented in small one-ton fermentors, the Forlorn Hope Les Deux Mathieux was aged for 18 months in neutral barrels before being bottled by hand.