A refreshing summery rosé with a bouquet of rose petals and crushed strawberries.
There’s a long tradition of rosé wine at the historic Stellenbosch wine estate of Lanzerac, its original skittle bottles a well-known feature of the South African wine landscape in the late 1950s and ’60s. But it’s their new generation of dry Provencal-style rosés that cellarmaster Wynand Lategan is enthusiastic about.
“When I started out, rosé was not really a winemaker’s wine, I always felt a sweet rosé was too sticky to drink more than one glass. But the lighter drier styles of rosé we’re seeing now in South Africa have become much more interesting and refreshing, and they tend to last longer,” says Wynand. “Rosé is a growing category that has been doing very well. It’s serious enough, but not too serious.”
Pinotage rosé in the vineyard
The three-hectare vineyard block of pinotage was planted specifically for rosé in 2015. In the Jonkershoek valley close to the Lanzerac cellars, it’s on lighter sandy soils with clay underneath. “The soils determine pretty much what you’re going to get in the bottle. These soils lend themselves perfectly to make rosé, so your yield can be higher… up to about 18 tonnes a hectare in a good harvest,” says Wynand.
“The important thing with rosé is you can’t make it as an afterthought,” he continues. “You can’t approach it thinking, okay, this is pinotage, we’ll see how the harvest goes and decide if we make red wine or rosé with it. You need to focus on making the rosé from a specific vineyard and then tend to the vineyards accordingly. You give it a more closed canopy to protect it against the sun, more frequent irrigation, so that the sugars don’t run away with it.”
The 2023 harvest
They had a good harvest for the 2023 vintage, which was picked over five days in the first week of February. “Your window for picking rosés is shorter. You don’t want green flavours. You have to keep your eye on the block and pick it at ripeness, when there’s just enough colour, but not overripe,” says Wynand. “Then you approach it as a white wine, try to keep it fresh as possible, two to three hours on the skins, no time on lees or barrel contact. We’re aiming for a summery, refreshing drink with lots of flavours on the nose.”
Pinotage Rosé 2023
In the tasting notes he describes the wine as having gentle aromatic notes of perfume and rose petals, redcurrants and crushed strawberries, with a beautiful delicate colour and soft fruit flavours. “It is a nice wine just to have a few glasses with friends, “he adds. “Drink it very cold as a refreshing summer pre-lunch aperitif or sundowner. It does go with light lunches, say salads, cheeses, oysters, or even fresh fruits, but it’s not specifically a food wine.”
A dry, perfumed and fruity rosé to enjoy now and all through summer for easy sociable sipping.
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