2020 Brut Rosé

Rose gold in color with aromas of strawberries and cream, peach pit and crusty bread, the fine, persistent bubbles complement juicy pink lady apple and subtle notes of rhubarb pie and candied orange peel.

Part of our 2020 Trio of Méthode Traditionelle Single Vineyard Sparkling Wines. Three distinctive expressions of Oregon Sparkling Wine: Brut Rosé, Brut & Blanc de Blancs.

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The 2020 La Bohème Brut Rosé Sparkling comes from 33-year-old vines and is composed entirely of Pinot Noir picked before the start of the wildfires. Base wines were fermented in stainless steel, and it spent two years en tirage. It has a medium salmon-pink color and open-knit aromas of peach, strawberry, kumquat and wet stone. The palate offers unabashedly fruity flavors softly accented by touches of pastry and brioche. It balances bright freshness with four grams per liter dosage and has a long, flavorful finish. 401 cases were made.
– Robert Parker Wine Advocate (November 2025)

Vintage

Vintage 2020 was a challenging vintage with nicely concentrated wines. The COVID-19 outbreak brought labor and safety challenges that we overcame in step with increased seasonal demands in the vineyard and cellar. Luckily our vines are 6 feet apart and well suited for social-distancing, but creative solutions saved the day – we even recruited our sales team for our harvest crew.

Cool, wet conditions in spring led to a 25% lighter than average fruit set with small clusters and berries, ideal conditions for flavor intensity. Summer brought steady heat and cool nights, increasing our expectations for a fantastic vintage across the board here in the Willamette Valley. Then, in August and September, Oregon experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons in history, bringing with it worries of smoke-affected fruit. Ripening slowed until the winds shifted eastward and the skies cleared in mid-September.

The silver lining for Elk Cove is that our vines are located in the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, where smoke effects were minimal. We will not release any wines that exhibit smoke taint, and have aggressively tested for it. We sent a great many samples to the laboratory in 2020. We’re confident that we made some fantastic wines from intensely concentrated fruit.

Vineyard

Pat and Joe Campbell named La Bohème vineyard after the family who sold them the property in 1974 – and their favorite Puccini opera. This picturesque vineyard overlooks the winery and the coast range mountains and rises to 800 feet, making it one of the highest elevation vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley. Fruit for this Brut Rosé was sourced from the lower blocks of La Bohème and harvested early at a lower ripeness. The lower initial sugar level of 20 brix helped us keep the final alcohol level at our desired 12-13%.

Winemaking

Our 100% Pinot Noir sparkling wine is a “méthode traditionnelle” Brut Rosé and was cool-fermented in stainless steel tanks to retain freshness of character using a traditional Champagne yeast.

This pink bubbly was initially bottled on site at Elk Cove. After 3 years in tirage (on the lees in bottle) the wine was riddled in an automated “gyropallette” then disgorged. We used a small amount of our ultra-sweet Ultima wine for the final dosage to adjust sweetness to a classic brut level.

Viticultural & Enological Data

Vine Age 33 years
Harvest Sugars 20 brix
pH 2.94
Vatting Cool-fermented in stainless steel tanks.
Cases Produced 401

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