We make our Dry Rosé by first bleeding a small amount of pink juice from our red grape fermentations. This is done before significant yeast activity or extraction of color and tannin occurs, perhaps by the second or third day after filling the vat. What we get is the most delicate expression of the grape. The juice is then fermented in very old barrels. After primary fermentation, malolactic fermentation is discouraged by the addition of a moderate amount of SO2. During the winter, we choose which lots to combine for our Dry Rosé, and ‘rack’ them together in a tank, then returning the wine to the same neutral barrels to further age on their lees (yeast sediment). After several more months in barrel, the wine is again racked off the lees, filtered, and bottled. This usually occurs around the month of May following the vintage. It is the only wine we routinely filter, to prevent malolactic fermentation from occurring in the bottle.
The additional time in barrel on the yeast lees helps contribute to the complexity and mouthfeel of our Dry Rosé. We feel this is important to the wine’s potential, despite the fact that we are probably the last to get our rosé to market.
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