There are two things that fascinated my about my tasting of the newly released DeGrendel Proposal Hill Brut Rosé.
1. DeGrendel is 300 years old! And it’s not even the oldest estate around. So whenever someone looks with scorn on the lack of history in “the new world” you can tell them that we have been making wines for longer more than places like Medoc, in Bordeaux. Incidentally, Argentina and Chile have about a century more winemaking history than we do!
2. Because grapes for sparkling wine are traditionally harvested really early, it can be super tricky to get both freshness (as a result of *lower* ripening levels) AND also to get rich colour (the result of *higher* ripening levels). Winemaker Charles Hopkins revealed a few tricks that help work towards achieving both.