WARNING: Drinking distilled spirits, beer,
coolers, wine and other alcoholic
beverages may increase cancer risk, and
during pregnancy, can cause birth defects.
For more information go to
www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/alcohol .
2024 Birichino Vin Gris
The 2024 marks our 15th vintage of making the world safe for serious rosé, sourcing fruit expressly for it from exceptional vineyards that develop flavor at more modest degrees of ripeness.
At its core are own-rooted, dry farmed Cinsault and Mourvedre planted in 1886 and 1895 that lend backbone, grip and vivid, violaceous aromatics. Grenache planted decades ago on deep sand atop shale on the Santa Lucia side of the Salinas Valley lends a touch of generous, rosehip-infused character, and a little Carignane planted in the late 1920s, provides a counterbalance of bright red fruit. Taking a page from the Provencal, we’ve also added a small amount of the slightly herbal, zesty aromatic white Vermentino (Rolle) for just a touch of salinity and added focus.
We rely on nighttime harvesting to preserve freshness, and continue our highwire act of direct pressing, settling, racking and adding each variety as it ripens into one single stainless tank, effecting one sequential, months-long, cool, native fermentation. Elevage is exclusively in steel, and lasts typically until the following spring. Unique in our range, we began with this wine to inhibit malololactic a few years ago to yield a decidely uninhibited brighter, tauter, more vivid wine.
These practices, but most especially the core contribution of 19th century Cinsault and Mourvèdre, a traditional meridional assemblage, and reliance on native fermentation as the keys to achieve aromatic complexity and nuanced expression result in a wonderfully prismatic wine with great perfume and sustain.
pH: 3.14
TA: 5.7 g/l
Alc. 13.0%/vol.