Rose-petal pink in the glass, wafting peach-plum, rose and elderflowers. An initial flash of green apple and sweet lemon leads to ripe strawberry and watermelon in this lightly-structured, well-balanced rosé.
“There’s a brushing of aromas akin to dusty Bing cherry, strawberry and cranberry juice, followed by delicate flavors of pink raspberry and white strawberry…”
– Great Northwest Wine (July 16, 2014)
VINTAGE 2013 had both the merits and the challenges of our cool climate. Wet weather during bloom led to low yields, requiring minimal thinning. A warm, dry summer followed, with a long season ideal for developing delicate flavors and concentration.
Adam’s mantra of great winemaking “starting in the vineyard” rang true – each day he checked multiple weather reports and walked the vineyards, tasting and testing juice for flavor development and brix. The goal: carefully time picking to avoid dilution, splitting and rot, while achieving optimum physiological ripeness. Although Tropical Storm Pabuk broke 100-year rainfall records in late September, it had a minimal effect on fruit quality with less than 1/3 of our fruit coming in that week.
We don’t grow grapes here because it’s easy, but because of the beautiful, complex flavors we get from our Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and other cool-climate varietals. 2013 will likely be a year that gets mixed reviews, with comparisons to 2010 and 2011. Those in the know rely on these vintages for beautiful elegance, great freshness and amazing longevity.
The fruit for this all Pinot Noir Rosé is hand-harvested from select vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley. 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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