With the warmer weather upon us, its time to start thinking about my favorite summer wine, Rose! We have just released our 2009 Vin Rose, and in my humble opinion it is our best one yet.
Rose wines continue to be somewhat of an enigma to most Americans, we quickly associate them with cheap pink wines such at White Zinfandel and Mateus. Sweet and not very food friendly. But many Americans are starting to recognize that "real" Rose wines are some of the most interesting and food friendly wines you can find.
I tend to be somewhat obsessive about our Vin Rose, each year pushing to make this wine better and more interesting. With the 2009 we added yet another new twist. We started the same as past years with an early picking of our Syrah grapes, about 24 hours of skin contact followed by primary fermentation in stainless steel tank. But new for this year we racked the wine into neutral oak barrels for about 2 months. This allows the wine to "breathe" or in wine geek terms, "micro-oxygenate". This allows the wine to become much richer and rounder, without the sharp edges of some wines that ferment in stainless steel. I would love to take credit for this idea, but truth be told, I discovered it while wine touring in Oregon last year. After trying some of the best Rose's I have ever had I asked the winemakers how they were achieving such big fruity round wines, and they all said "Neutral Barrels"! So I was eager to give this a try, and the results speak for themselves!
Stop by the winery or our new tasting room in Denver and try the 2009 Vin Rose. It the perfect summer wine.
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