Three Roses

Hello friends. There as many ways to make Rosé, it seems, as there are stars in the firmament. Some are good. Some are White Zinfandel.

(I kid, I kid. My first ever Rosé was, in fact, a Beringer White Zinfandel, spirited from my parents’ basement fridge and chugged at tooth-rattlingly frigid temps on a muggy August day, on our screened-in back-porch in the ‘burbs of Philly. A young boy, a bottle of sugary wine, and a swarm of fireflies: it’s an American pastoral, I know. White Zin: the gateway drug for many a future wine writer.)

Today we have three (dry!) Rosés, made using three different production techniques:

2011 Trust Rose

Technique: Skin Contact (non-saignee)

This is the most traditional of today’s three. Here Cabernet Franc grapes were picked specifically for Rosé, put through the crusher, left on the skins for a few days to get that pink color, and then pressed off.

We have offered Steve Brooks’ Rosé during each summer of Full Pull’s existence (here are the 2009 and 2010 offerings), and it has become a list favorite, in part for the whimsical label outside the bottle and in larger part for the good juice inside the bottle. Cabernet Franc is a good choice for Rosé, as it always seems to add a little savory complexity, here in the form of a light straw/hay note overlaying the core of fruit. That fruit is a lovely, brisk mix of kiwi, pineapple, and apricot. There is fine intensity and surprising nuance for Rosé at this tariff.

2011 Juliette’s Dazzle (Long Shadows)

Technique: Gris de Gris

There are a few grapes that make white wine, but whose skin actually takes on a pinkish-gray pigment, such that a Rosé is possible. The most famous Gris de Gris is Domaine de Fontsainte’s in the Corbieres region of France. That one is made mostly from Grenache Gris.

Dazzle is made from Pinot Gris, which has just enough pink in its skin to make an effective Rosé (to stabilize the color, 2% Rosé of Sangiovese was also blended in). This is a special project from the Long Shadows family, so the steady hand of Gilles Nicault is at the helm. A unique wine, and put into a unique bottle (clear glass, shaped very much like a bowling pin, silk-screened label).

Aromatics are lovely and summery: pink melon, pineapple, and salt air. This has 1% RS but loads of acid, and it drinks quite dry and lightly spritzy. More of the traditional Pinot Gris character comes out in the palate, with flavors of bosc pear and green apple. An odd, beautiful bottle of Rosé.

2011 J.K. Carriere “Glass” White Pinot Noir

Technique: Mad Scientist

This is one of the truly oddball wines produced in the northwest. And better yet, it’s good!

Jim Prosser starts out with single-vineyard Pinot Noir from the 30-year-old vines of Temperance Hill Vineyard. He whole-cluster presses it, ferments to dryness with wild yeasts, and tosses it into neutral French barrels. Then it gets weird. He adds dead Chardonnay lees into those barrels, which has two effects: it strips color (making the wine an even paler pink), and it adds an earthy broadness to the mid-palate. According to Jim, these were techniques used in fin-de-siècle Champagne.

Sure! Why not?

The result is wild: a wine that looks the part of Rosé but acts like something else entirely. The aromatics are as much like a Blanc de Noirs Champagne as anything else. There’s the Pinot character – red cherry, earthy forest floor, pine resin – but wait: there’s an appealing bready leesiness there as well. On the palate, the flavors return to something closer to traditional Rosé: citrus peel, cantaloupe, strawberry. It’s a low-alcohol (12%), bottle with beautiful bright acids, and it’s the complexity here that surprises more than anything. Can be drunk this summer, to be sure, but this also presents a strong Rosé candidate for the Thanksgiving table.

First come first served up to 36 bottles total (mix and match at your leisure). The wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be available for pickup or shipping.