Domaine Carneros Brut Rose

Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé is a wine of great balance, emphasizing fruity and floral characteristics to a greater extent than evident in the Brut or Le Rêve. It is made strictly with artisan attention to quality, with sourcing exclusively from Carneros and the use of time-honored Champenoise methods of production. A blend of 58% Pinot Noir, 42% Chardonnay, the Brut Rosé is meant to be enjoyed at a fairly young age, when the fruity character is still predominant yet there is enough age to make the wine round and balanced.The wine's aroma has hints of wild strawberries and roses with notes of peach Although a pale pink in color, Brut Rosé is not sweeter than our other wines. It is a true Brut.Foods that pair exceedingly well with the Rosé are duck and salmon, and it is the only one of our wines that goes really well with dessert. It is a beautiful wine for a wedding, brunch, Valentine’s Day or any romantic dinner for two.Rosé wines are often believed to be made only from pinot noir, but many including ours have some chardonnay added. In creating our Rosé, we worked to create a wine of great balance using pinot noir and chardonnay, but at the same time, emphasizing fruity and floral characteristics to a greater extent than is evident in the Brut or Le Rêve.

The special fruitiness of the Rosé is obtained in two ways. The first way is to allow part of the pinot juice to spend several days in contact with the grape skins. (This is never allowed to happen with the other sparkling wines.) This extracts both the lovely color and flavor components that enhance the Rosé. The second way is to add back a small amount of red pinot noir wine. This is done to adjust both color and flavor. We do this red wine addition as a way to fine-tune the early skin contact, for example, if the color is a little too light.

Our Rosé is meant to be enjoyed at a fairly young age, around two years, when the fruity character is still predominant yet there is enough age to make the wine round and balanced. At about two years, the wine’s aroma has hints of wild strawberries and roses with notes of peach. Although it is pink in color, our Brut Rosé is not sweeter than our other wines. It is a true Brut.