86 Points
– Wine & Spirits (September 30, 2007)
“…unmistakable whiffs of strawberry and red cherry. This is a dry, refined pinot noir rosé, a benchmark bottling.”
– The Oregonian (June 3, 2007)
“…Elk Cove’s sultry, floral pink is the answer for cooling off during hot summer nights.”
– Epicurious.com (July 31, 2007)
Vintage 2006 certainly has everyone offering up grand descriptions! “Everything ripened beautifully.” “This is a rarity.” “A warm, fully ripe vintage.” Fruit set was ideal with a mild Spring. Months that followed were warm and dry, with short-lived heat spikes and a few intermittent cooling rains in the fall, advancing fruit ripeness. Feelings abound in the valley that the 2006 vintage seems to be a combination of the 1999’s depth and the ripeness of 2003 (the only vintage warmer than 2006), but with better flavors and natural balance. And white wines will shine! Many quoting 2006 as a stellar year with typical cool climate acidity to balance that richness.
The fruit for this all Pinot Noir Rosé is hand-harvested from Elk Cove’s estate vineyards. For the Rosé, we choose both young and old vines from higher elevation vineyards on their own rootstock. These give us the full flavor development and aromatics needed for a fresh white wine, within a framework of lower alcohol.
Pinot Noir fruit for our Rosé is hand-harvested very ripe and gently whole bunch pressed with limited skin crushing, which makes virtually a “white Pinot Noir”. The wine is fermented cool in stainless steel tanks. Then carefully selected lots of fermented red Pinot Noir juice is blended back for color and texture. Our Pinot Noir Rosé is finished completely dry.
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