2023 Helen Dusschee Rose

AVA: Willamette Valley

LOCATION: Burnell Rd., Dallas, OR

ELEVATION: 500’

SOIL TYPE: Bellpine

YEAR PLANTED: 2012

CLONAL MATERIAL: 100% Tempranillo

VINIFICATION: 100% inoculated in stainless steel with 1 puncheon filled post-fermentation.

PICKING DATE: 09/29/23

TONS/ACRE: 8.29 (that is correct)

OWNERS: Helen & Dan Dusschee

PRODUCTION: 555 cases bottled

Winemaking and Notes: Years ago we committed to NOT making rosé because we liked drinking it too much to get into the business of crafting it. That was largely in part because of our belief that rosé should be made from red grapes that have more inherent muscularity than Pinot Noir and being up here in the Northern Willamette Valley means that access to grapes such as Mourvedre, Grenache, Carignan or Tempranillo was incredibly limited to non-existent. Little did we know that lurking within Freedom Hill Vineyard was a block of Tempranillo that they had planted in 2012 at the behest of another winery that has since left the scene. Tempranillo grows in a very upright fashion and has gangly, large clusters that are particularly resistant to botrytis. Due to the climate in the Northern Willamette Valley there really isn’t any way to get these grapes ripe enough to make them into any sort of red wine (we tried another winery’s efforts and they were, well, let’s say they confirmed that it shouldn’t be done). However, that means these grapes get perfectly ripe for delicious rosé that has both the firmness of acidity and the soft, sweetness to make for a wine that can stand in with the best rosés made in a world that makes more and more mediocre rosé from grape varieties not really up to the task.

This was picked while there were still berries that had not changed color on the cluster and accordingly this was picked at 20.3 brix (thus the 12.5% alcohol) and a TA of 7.2 which gives the wine its bright, lifted character. These gangly clusters were lightly whole-bunch pressed and racked a few times off the lees before permanently residing in a stainless steel tank for about six months before being bottled before finishing malolactic fermentation. This wine is bone-dry with plenty of acidity  yet it comes off as easy on the palate and very much ready to be drunk over the next several months.  There are tons of rosés being made in the world, many by wineries that are simply passing along  juice drained off red wine cuvées or making stuff out of grapes that don’t really make great rosé. Buy your pink wine from a winery that  has a sterling reputation for great varietal wine as well as making one of the world’s greatest blueberry wines and a line of whiskeys that compete with any whiskey on the planet. Rosé is meant to be fun, but making it is still a serious job if you want actual, real wine in the end. This wine finished with a TA of 6.7 and a pH of 3.12. Due to the high acidities a minimal amount of SO2 was used and the wine has a free SO2 of under 20 ppm and a total ppm of under 50 ppm.