Jules Taylor OTQ Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé 2021

Description

• Dry style
• Poached rhubarb
• Nougat & vanilla
• Mouth-watering

"Made from Pinot Noir grapes grown specifically for Rosé. A mid-pink wine, with a fragrant and quite floral aroma that leads to sweet berry fruit and a touch of fresh herbs on the palate. Intense and appealing wine. Gave it 94 points and thought how could you improve that? Then immediately promoted it to 95" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review

"Captivating and joyful, the enticing bouquet shows nectarine, raspberry, red apple and floral aromas with a hint of spicy complexity. The focused palate displays excellent concentration and flow, combined with refined mouthfeel and bright acidity, finishing mouth-watering and delectably appealing" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit

This wine has a clear, bright pink hue. Summery aromas of poached rhubarb, rose petals and raspberries fill the first sniff, subtly layered with notes of spice, nougat and vanilla cream. The palate is juicy, dry and elegantly complex. Flavours of ripe summer berries, plums and rhubarb are rounded out with notes of crushed savoury herbs. There is a beautiful silky mouthfilling palate leading to a compelling, long dry finish.

The 2021 season got off to a cracking start with a warm spring causing bud burst and flowering to occur earlier than normal. However a significant frost on 30th September followed by unsettled weather during flowering severely reduced the number of grapes. From Christmas onwards, conditions reverted to a more usual pattern with sunny, dry weather causing the grass to turn from spring green to golden brown. The grapes started to race towards harvest, but the prolonged dry spell limited any berry expansion, so at harvest we had very clean small berries but also some of the lowest harvest bunch weights since 2007. Harvest began on the 4th March, again more than a week earlier than normal and one of the earliest harvests in Marlborough. The last fruit picked this year was delivered into the winery hilariously on April Fool’s Day. Without exception, all vineyards were disease-free and had great fruit concentration. We just wish there were more to go around!

The grapes for this Rosé were grown in the Anderson Vineyard, which is nestled on the North-facing slopes of the upper Brancott area of Marlborough’s Southern Valleys. This Pinot Noir grapes in this vineyard are grown specifically for making Rosé wines, In early March they were hand harvested and brought quickly to the winery, where they were crushed, destemmed and left on their skins for a couple of hours to produce a beautiful soft pink colour. The juice was then clarified and racked to tank where it began a long and cool ferment with a selected yeast strain to retain its unique aromas and flavours. Finally the wine was racked off yeast lees, stabilised and filtered for brightness and clarity.

Food Pairing: Match with a charcuterie platter or a bowl of olives, or step it up a notch with chargrilled aubergine steaks with black cherry tomatoes roasted in crème fraiche.