Wine
This rosé brings nuances of fresh strawberry, raspberry, black cherry, melon, a touch of spice. On the palate full-bodied with bright acidity and a light astringency giving the wine “backbone”. Soft red berry fruits carry through to a nice lingering finish with maybe a slight sensation of sweetness, though the wine is bone dry!
* 100% Estate Grown Fruit from the Middleburg Virginia AVA
Production
The 2021 growing season was another good one providing an abundant crop that allowed us some choices to explore. There are several ways to make a rosé and for the 2021 version of this wine we changed our usual approach just a bit. Previously, this blend has been primarily from red varieties destemmed and put into the fermenters for red wine making. After 24-48 hours, when the juice has begun to develop a little color, a portion of the juice is “bled” (saignée) from the tank for rosé production. This procedure also increases the skin-to-juice ratio in the red wine fermenters to help concentrate those wines.
For this 2021 version, 70% of the blend is from Cabernet Franc (and a bit of Sauvignon Blanc) that was harvested, chilled overnight, and whole-cluster pressed, like our white wines. The other 30% of the blend was made with the customary saignée method as described above. The lightly colored juice obtained from both methods was then fermented much as a white wine is: long, cool fermentations at about 58°F in stainless steel tanks, aged 5-6 months on yeast sediment (lees) and occasionally stirred with these lees to help develop more fullness and body in the wine.
In the vineyard, once it was determined that flavors had developed and acids were still well elevated, the Cabernet Franc directly pressed for this wine was harvested September 14-16. By comparison, the Cab Franc for the red wine was picked a full two weeks later.
