2023 Home Fields Moss Oaks Rosé 2023

Single-vineyard, Pinot Noir Rosé.

Structured. Lifted aromas of fresh juicy fruit, perhaps grapefruit or even pineapple. Mid-notes are savoury & dry herb in character. Fresh on the palate. Acidity delivered with presence rather than a piquey bristling character. Soft tannin.

"...delightfully fruited and elegantly fragrant on the nose, showing raspberry, apricot, subtle spice, oatmeal and rich floral aromas. The palate delivers bright fruit flavours with fine texture backed by racy acidity and fine phenolics, finishing long and pleasingly dry."

Weather conditions were uncharacteristic for a cool climate region renowned for blistering dry summers, huge diurnal range, high winds & cold but bright winters. "Old wood" farmers confirmed the conditions were without precedent in living memory.

Flowering was excellent. Over quickly. Unaffected by wind or frost, meaning high yields & good bunch architecture. That was good. Everything that followed was less great. Constant wet conditions across the season, harsh & frequent frost, snow! over-vigorous canopy growth & labour scarcity.

Canopy & vineyard floor growth was beyond vigorous. Leaf removal started before flowering & continued right up to harvest. This reflected the heightened disease risk as well as constant new growth appearing into the autumn. It is my preferred approach to open up the fruit zone early but this was easily three times the work of previous seasons.

Towards harvest, bunches set & hung really well. Berry size was generally small. Some dropping of bunches occurred. This was to remove bird-strike affected bunches, which are a vector for botrytis. Remarkably, few bunches were sacrificed & the eventual harvested fruit was beautifully clean.

Overall, a low intervention vinification, other than several racking events to separate lees. Sampling & tasting to determine final presentation of the wine included experiments with acidity & sweetness. Pleasingly, the best expression of the wine was with no further invention. It tasted at its best left just as it was.

Destemmed, lightly pressed & separated from skins. Fermented over 10 days in steel tanks til dry. Colour was superb from the first. Flavours were also really nice. Early on, a ripe pineapple flavour was evident. Has mellowed as vinification progressed. It now presents pleasant strawberry, tangerine'ish/grapefruity citrus notes. Post ferment the wine was racked several times then left to contemplate the world until bottling.

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