Château de Rouanne - Brut Nature Rosé, Comté de Grignan, Rhône, France (2020)

 TASTING NOTES

Bright, invigorating notes of wild strawberry, pear, white flowers and flinty minerality. Bone dry, super delicious. 

Harvested in the cool early morning hours, the grapes had a lengthy pressing followed by fermentation using indigenous yeasts in concrete vats to preserve the character and purity of the terroir. The second fermentation occured with zero dosage.

Château de Rouanne (owned by Louis Barruol [Château de Saint Cosme in Gigondas and Forge Estate in New York’s Finger Lakes] is an historic estate. A medieval castle, originally from the 12^thcentury, was established on a 2000-year old Gallo-Roman villa on this site. Destroyed during the French Revolution, the castle was rebuilt in 1820.

A one-block monopole slope which is the quintessence of Vinsobres on a southeast facing slope overlooking Mt. Ventoux from the north. It was one of the primary sources of fruit from which Louis makes his excellent Saint Cosme Côtes du Rhône. 

The vineyard was planted in the 1960’s with an exceptional heritage of massale selection of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre on limestone and sandy marl dating back to the Pliocene epoch. The forest that surrounds the vineyard and sits atop the slope acts as a temperature regulator making Rouanne a well-tempered micro-climate. The cellar is traditionally designed with concrete vats and an underground area to ensure good élevage.