Case Production: 49

Price: $16.00

Club Price: $14.40

Release Date: May 1, 2008

Alc. 13.6% by Vol

Blend

100% Mourvèdre

Growing Season

The 2007 growing season was fast and furious. High temperatures caused our fruit to ripen earlier than usual. However, for some reason the Mouvèdre grapes seemed to struggle to fully ripen. They were harvested at a low 21.6 Brix. Not ideal for making a red wine, but perfect for making a Rosé.

We sourced our Mouvèdre grapes from the Columbia Valley, on the cooler side in the Yakima Valley

The story of how our Rosé came to be.

I was excited to get some Mourvèdre this past vintage. I was expecting it to come in at a much higher sugar level, but such was not the case. It was raining the day the fruit came in. It was so wet and slippery on the drive back to the winery the bins nearly slid off the back of the truck. We waited for a break in the weather and crushed the fruit at dusk. Exhausted from a long days work and the days before we decided to call it a day and went home. I checked the sugar levels the next morning and was shocked. It read a low 21.6 brix. I took a deep breath and decided to do something I hadn’t planned on doing; I decided to make a rosé!

The crushed grapes had been on the skins for 16 hours picking up a bright pink color. I loaded everything into the press and put it through the very gentle white wine press cycle that I use on the Viognier. After that we settled the juice out in tank over night before going into 2 neutral French oak barrels. We inoculated the wine with yeast that adds extra body to the wine. During fermentation we stirred the wine bi-weekly to keep the yeast suspended. This helped the wine finish fermentation to complete dryness and helps improve the wines mouth feel. This went on for three months, and then we allowed the wine to settle before bottling Feb 25^th, 2008.

Tasting Notes

This wine has aromas of white pepper, fresh strawberries licorice and cranberries. Nice biting acidity transforms into a creamy mouth feel on the finish.