Negroamaro Rosato 2018
Varietal:
100% Negroamaro
Alcohol:
13%
Vinification Notes:
Negroamaro was harvested by hand, kept whole-cluster, gently foot tread, and left on its skins and stems overnight before pressing the next morning. This labor and time-intensive method is our nod to the traditional rosato techniques of Italy. After pressing, the juice was racked to neutral oak barrels to begin fermentation. After 12 months in barrel, the wine was racked off its lees, blended, and then returned to barrel to continue aging. In total, the Negroamaro Rosato undergoes our longest barrel aging program (yes, even longer than our Cabernet!), spending a full 21 months in neutral oak before bottling.
Vineyard:
Benson Ranch, Mendocino County; 15-year-old vines; dry farmed (no irrigation), farmed according to organic principles without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers; gravelly loam soils.
Tasting Notes:
An unmistakable and unique nose full of agave, clay, blanched almond, and slightly toasty, caramelized aromas. The palate shows strawberry cream and wild mint, which reminds us of a refreshing fruit shrub.
Martha's Notes
The Negroamaro Rosato is one of my favorite wines. With its racing acidity, concentration, and ample body, I believe it will show balance and beauty at any point in its lifetime. Drink now if you’d like to experience more of its fruit, or age as you please to continue to accentuate its body. This wine has an autumnal thread running through it. Drinking it any time of year, I am transported to a rocky mediterranean coast, where fall is still warm. I can smell sea air, ripe prickly pears, and herbs drying in the golden September sun. The Benson Ranch Negroamaro fruit has such incredible concentration; we age this wine not according to its category (rosé, which would not usually have long elevage), but by what the fruit in this unique parcel dictates. Also very unique for rosé: we barrel ferment and age this wine on lees, after a good foot treading and an overnight maceration on the stems and skins.
Production Notes
Production: 95 cases
At Bottling:
13% alcohol. Unfined. Unfiltered. At bottling (June 2020): free SO2 < 2 mg/L, total SO2 22 mg/L.