Rose Brut 2006

Winemaker: Anthony Miceli
Background:
Rose Champagne has long been a special favourite of mine. On our wedding night we had a bottle of Rothschild ’76 Rose (in1986). Seeing as it worked for us, (still married now with 4 children) when we came to make our own sparkling wine (by methode champenoise) I could not resist the temptation to make this rather special wine, some of which we have held back on lees to reach this stage of “cuve prestige” which we enjoyed so long ago.
Picked: 4-7/3/2006
Tiraged: Kilchurn, Romsey, (under supervision).
Disgorged: Each batch is recently disgorged usually 3-6 months before sale.

Winemaking: Picked at much less than normal ripeness, to retain acid levels and aiming to reach for fine and delicate flavours such as those that set Champagne apart from many Australian sparkling wines. A blend was made of the classic varieties Pinot Noir (65%), Chardonnay (20%), and Pinot Gris (15%). Part of the blend was processed as white base juice, and part of this wine is from riper Pinot Noir, crushed, then pressed after <12 hours skin contact to extract pink colour. This juice for the base wine was fermented warm (20-27 deg C) to maximise vinosity rather than fruitiness.
The wine was blended, fined, and filtered at Miceli, then tirage bottled at Kilchurn and then disgorged after more than 10 years maturation on lees, with each batch made ready for sale and the remainder to be freshly disgorged when required.
Oak: Nil
Malolactic Fermentation: 100%
Analysis: Alc 11.5 % /vol, pH 3.00, TA 9.2 g/l Sugar (dosage) 9 g/l
Tasting Notes
The colour is an aristocratic pale pink.
The palate is rich and flavoursome, with creamy and toasty yeast, and delicious strawberry pinot noir fruit. It has great length, persistent fine bead and a clean dry finish.

Cellaring:
The nature of methode champenoise is that the maturation takes place in bottle prior to disgorging, at which stage the wine is ready for consumption. Because of the yeast lees it is a fresh still as it was when bottled. For those who like bottle development in the wines this wine will continue to gain richness, as does a table wine, over 5-10 years (but at the expense of its sparkling character).
Winemakers Comments :
This wine is inspired by the spectrum of flavours and palate structure of sparkling wines from Champagne. We feel this wine is comparable in style and we think quality, and altogether different from most sparkling wines made in Australia. This is a more full bodied wine, than the Michael Brut, with the contribution of riper pinot character, but definitely still in the dry and delicate category.