A Tribute to Grace Grenache Rose 2021 p1
Regular price
$27.00
California, USA
2019
A grape that should probably be much more widely planted in California, Grenache in Angela Osbourne's hands makes clear the variety's diverse strengths, placing her among the elite producers of Grenache, not just in California, but in the world. Her red Grenache wines are incredibly elegant and complex (watch out Pinot!), but she also makes a varietal rosé of Grenache that will compete with the most serious pink wines of Provence. She always gets her grapes for rosé from the same block in the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, and has lately been using two distinct clones of Grenache. In 2019 she processed the two clones separately: direct press on harvest day (September 19) for clone '2', and foot treading with 24 hours of maceration for the 'Noir' clone. She combined the juices in a temperature controlled tank to ferment for 39 days, and thereafter rest on the gross lees until bottling (March 9). The result is one of the most serious pink wines we have ever tasted. We said the same thing about the 2018 last year, but the 2019, a little more structured and dense, is perhaps even better. We could go on about the many fruity, floral and herbal nuances we get from this wine, but we love the poetry and precision of Angela's tasting note: "nectarine stone, sweet peas, and linen-on-the-line". It is absolutely superb today, but this pink wine will surely be more complex and complete next summer, and we would not be surprised to find it in fine form two or three (four, five) summers forward.
2019
A grape that should probably be much more widely planted in California, Grenache in Angela Osbourne's hands makes clear the variety's diverse strengths, placing her among the elite producers of Grenache, not just in California, but in the world. Her red Grenache wines are incredibly elegant and complex (watch out Pinot!), but she also makes a varietal rosé of Grenache that will compete with the most serious pink wines of Provence. She always gets her grapes for rosé from the same block in the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, and has lately been using two distinct clones of Grenache. In 2019 she processed the two clones separately: direct press on harvest day (September 19) for clone '2', and foot treading with 24 hours of maceration for the 'Noir' clone. She combined the juices in a temperature controlled tank to ferment for 39 days, and thereafter rest on the gross lees until bottling (March 9). The result is one of the most serious pink wines we have ever tasted. We said the same thing about the 2018 last year, but the 2019, a little more structured and dense, is perhaps even better. We could go on about the many fruity, floral and herbal nuances we get from this wine, but we love the poetry and precision of Angela's tasting note: "nectarine stone, sweet peas, and linen-on-the-line". It is absolutely superb today, but this pink wine will surely be more complex and complete next summer, and we would not be surprised to find it in fine form two or three (four, five) summers forward.