WINEMAKER'S NOTES
The festive pink hue of Van Duzer Pinot Noir Rose heralds its role as a clean, refreshing summertime fare. Aged only in stainless steel, it serves up a dry, crisp style. A swirl of the glass reveals the wine's Pinot Noir pedigree, as ready aromas of wild strawberry and raspberry unfold. This Rose is a particularly good match for crab and salmon.

THE VINEYARDS
The grapes for this wine were taken from the northeast block of Pommard grapes here on the Van Duzer Vineyards estate. Normally, this block is destined for the Barrel Select program but was selected for the Rose because of its typical fruit/floral intensity. Our classic Van Duzer micro-climate of warm days, cool nights and mild west winds helped develop the flavor in the grapes while maintaining the ever important acid structure of the fruit.

WINEMAKING
Often-times, a Rose wine is the byproduct of the process of concentrating must to make darker red wines with the leftover juice making the Rose. Here, we decided to deliberately produce a Rose of superior quality. The Pinot Noir clusters were hand harvested and sorted, then destemmed and crushed directly to the press. The crushed fruit was allowed to soak in the press for 4 hours, picking up color and flavor from the skins. After soaking, the juice was pressed off to tank for cold settling. The juice was racked the following day and inoculated with yeast known to enhance aromas. The juice was allowed to cold-ferment until dry, racked clean and cold-stabilized, then bottled.