Nose
vividly fresh and enticing strawberry, raspberry, cherry and watermelon aromas complemented by notes of citrus, mineral and vanilla.
Palate
Fluid and silky on the palate, the wine’s juicy cherry and raspberry flavors pick up a zesty pepper spice tone in the long, lip-smacking, mineral-edged finish. .
Growing Conditions
In 2011, California experienced one of its coldest, wettest and latest vintages in memory, a true “European-style” year. Wet winter and spring weather extended into mid-June, delaying and disrupting budbreak, bloom and fruit set and setting the stage for a cool summer growing season that culminated in a prolonged harvest beset by autumn rains. Experienced growers compensated for these challenging conditions by removing leaves from the vines to admit more sunlight and thinning bunches to ensure the remaining grape clusters ripened fully. These practices enabled us to produce many fine, elegant, full-flavored wines in 2011, including our Vin de Porche rosé.
Winemaking
Making a world-class dry rosé requires handling the fruit very gently to extract just the right amount of color and achieve an ideal balance of fresh, vivid aromas, bright acidity and delicate, fruit-forward flavors. To accomplish these goals, we lightly press the whole clusters and maintain a blanket of CO2 over the juice at all times to limit oxidation. Juice color is carefully monitored, with several press ‘fractions’ (portions of the juice drained from the press at intervals based on color extraction) used to increase blending opportunities. In 2011, we cold-settled each press ‘cut’ for 36 hours, then transferred 55% of the juice to 75-gallon stainless steel barrels for fermentation, with the other 45% fermenting in neutral French oak barrels. To fully capture the wine’s fresh, vibrant fruit character, we bottled this lovely rosé after just three months’ aging.
Aging
3 months in neutral oak barrels
