Winemaker Notes
Dry Rosé is the ideal wine for warm summer days, as an aperitif, or as a match for appetizers and spicy food. We also love to sip it while we cook, especially outside by the grill. Thus, we take our Rosé seriously and meticulously apply all of the techniques we use on our white and red wines, most importantly, grape and site selection, lower yields, careful handling, and fermentation to complete dryness. Our Rosé is crisp, refreshing, expressive and lively, which stimulates the palate.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
On the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, the rolling hills of the tiny Happy Canyon AVA produce top quality reds from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and whites from Sauvignon blanc. The region’s low-nutrient soil grows smaller vines and in turn, higher quality wine grapes.