Charles Melton Rose of Virginia 2008

Lovely aromatic grenache perfume. Musk-like but with a leavening touch of spice and leaf from the Shiraz and Cabernet with a tiny proportion of Pinot Meunier adding further interest.

A well balanced palate with nice acidity and mid-palate richness balanced by the all-important tannin which makes Rose of Virginia such an ideal food-style Rose.

The Vintage: Due to the dry conditions, 2007 became one of the earliest vintages in living memory. Extremely low yields in both the Shiraz and Cabernet gave small berries of intense colour and flavour.
Grenache, the key variety in the Rose of Virginia, was treated slightly more kindly by nature but still only delivered minimal yields.

The Technique: The Rose of Virginia production involves a number of key techniques. Co-fermentation of the varieties gives us our lovely pink colour and a variation in skin contact-times allows us to arrive at just the right combination of colour and tannin. This is followed by a slow cool fermentation, which is stopped when just a few grams of natural grape sugar are left in the wine. This to soften rather than sweeten. Picking slightly early helps retain the natural acidity (very good levels in 2007) to give some zest and crispness on the palate.