Vibrant sunset color in the glass, this wine has a nose of sweet cherry, early season strawberries and honeydew melon. A juicy palate follows with notes of tart cherry accented by rose petals and a grippy and zippy finish of lime-peel and Bosc pear.
Among Sunsets picks is our 2016 Pinot Noir Rosé, described as “Rose petals and stones; vibrant strawberry and lemon.”
– Sunset Magazine (May 2017)
VINTAGE 2016 was a year of unusual weather that led to beautiful fruit at lower than average yields. In spring, an early heat spike meant a very condensed time frame for bloom. This gave us smaller than average berries and clusters and set us on the path for our third early harvest in a row. Thankfully, summer weather was cooler than average, which slowed down ripening and allowed flavor development to catch up to sugar accumulation. Due to our small initial crop estimates, we held off thinning until the last minute to delay ripening and add “hang-time”, an important factor in the development of complex flavors.
We were a little stunned when our first fruit hit the crush-pad in the last days of August, setting a record for our earliest harvest in 40 years. September and October brought relief from the heat with mild evenings and cool nights that allowed for slow, even ripening. We picked fruit that was absolutely pristine and perfectly ripe, at a gradual pace that allowed us to give our full attention to each block and work shorter hours than in a typical harvest season.
We are hopeful that 2016 will be just as great as the spectacular 2012 and 2014 vintages, and early signs indicate just that, with the wines showing moderate alcohols, balanced acids and great concentration.
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 and is a combination of both gently whole-bunch pressed fruit, and a traditional method of making a Rosé called saignée. Saignée is free run juice that is bled off early prior to fermentation of Pinot Noir, which we thoughtfully collect in order to make a delicately balanced Rosé. The pressed fruit and saignée is all fermented cool in stainless steel tanks, then carefully selected lots of fermented red Pinot Noir juice is blended back in for color and texture. Our Pinot Noir Rosé is finished completely dry.
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