Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Rosé 2022

Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Rosé 2022Dry style Red berries Mixed spice Vibrant "A lovely salmon pink hue leads to a bouquet and palate of apricot and saffron, peach and red apple. The acid line offer contrast and crunch as well as holding a layer of mineral and gentle white spice quality. Very fine fruit tannins add in a lighter chalky mouthfeel then flavours from the bouquet remain at the core. Balanced, well made and ready to drink from day of purchase through end of summer 2026"

• Dry style
• Red berries
• Mixed spice
• Vibrant

"A lovely salmon pink hue leads to a bouquet and palate of apricot and saffron, peach and red apple. The acid line offer contrast and crunch as well as holding a layer of mineral and gentle white spice quality. Very fine fruit tannins add in a lighter chalky mouthfeel then flavours from the bouquet remain at the core. Balanced, well made and ready to drink from day of purchase through end of summer 2026" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Oct 2023

Produced from Pinot Noir (89%) and Pinot Gris (11%) the juice was drained immediately on arrival at the winery with half the wine receiving a light press to provide a pale coral pink colour. The Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were co-fermented in tank using an aromatic yeast. Our 2022 Rosé exhibits fragrant fresh summer red berry fruits on the nose that combines beautifully with an intriguing mix of spice and savoury. The wine is dry, vibrant and perfect for those hot summer days.

2022 was a long, extended vintage. A hot and dry early summer provided a good fruit set but overall the Pinot Noir yields were low. Mid-summer, New Zealand experienced a run of cooler days that extended the ripening period and pushed out harvest by 2 weeks from normal. This enabled the fruit to fully ripen and be picked with optimum flavour. The aim of our 2022 Rosé is to align with the colour profile of the Provence style Rosé – that being a light coral pink. To achieve this, both the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were drained immediately upon arrival at the winery. Half of the juice was lightly pressed with the balance being free run juice only. Post cold settling, the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were blended and co-fermented together giving a blend of 89% Pinot Noir and 11% Pinot Gris. Inoculated with an aromatic yeast and fermented at a steady 120C, the Rosé was fermented to dryness then aged on its lees for a further 4 weeks to build texture and mouthfeel. The Rosé was bottled in September 2022 to retain maximum freshness and vibrancy.

Mt Beautiful consists of a single estate vineyard set across 85Ha of undulating slopes and aspects creating a unique tapestry of flavours. Both the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are planted on the Southern section of the vineyard. This has the highest elevation and produces extra heat accumulation and less frost risk. The Pinot Noir is closely planted to reduce vigour and enable lower per vine yields enabling the fruit to achieve the physiological ripeness we were looking for in our Rosé. The Pinot Noir blocks were chosen based on two of Mt Beautiful’s oldest (Block N and X) that are planted with a mixture of clones (115, 5, 6, Mariafeld, Abel) and combined with one of our young vine blocks planted with 115, 667, 5, Abel, 10/5, 777, 943. What this offers in the Rosé is a wonderful medley of clones and a true vineyard blend. Each clone offers something different – fruit flavour, spiciness, savoury notes and acidity. The Pinot Gris planted on a North facing slope consists of the Berrysmith, Orvaille and GN 2-21 clones giving slight differences in their flavour profiles and were harvested at the same time as the Pinot Noir as the key to this blend is the co-fermentation of both varieties providing complementary roles of aromatics and phenolic mouthfeel to the wine.

Food Pairing: Our Mt Beautiful Rosé pairs perfectly with fresh salmon, shellfish or a spicy refreshing salad.