Letting the Fruit Shine in Chatham’s 2023 Rosé
September 12, 2024The team at Chatham Vineyards on Church Creek on the Eastern Shore is especially excited about the 2023 Rosé, a wine that promises to be the highlight of many gatherings and the perfect accompaniment to sunny days, seafood and more.
The newest vintage of this fan favorite was bottled in April of 2024 and will showcase a slightly different approach taken by vintner Jon Wehner, making the 2023 release a special treat for Rosé lovers everywhere.
It reflects Wehner’s knowledge that in the world of viticulture and winemaking, it’s better to work with Mother Nature than against her.
Blends and Process of the Past
Rosé is made in a variety of ways, and winemakers can adjust their technique based on the harvest conditions or flavor profile they seek.
Earlier vintages of Chatham’s Rosé were made from blends of red grapes. The blend would always contain Merlot, along with varying percentages of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.
Following harvest, Wehner would typically employ the saignée method, the French term for “bleeding” off a portion of juice from the tank of crushed red grapes. The resulting concentration produces a richer, more complex red wine with darker color and more tannins, and the juice used for Rosé tends to also have a darker hue.
But that was the approach taken during the 2019-2022 seasons which were hot and dry.
“Grapes were very ripe and red then, so we wanted to concentrate the reds more in those years,” Wehner explains. “Saignée is a great method for those conditions.”
So Long Saignée
Things changed for Chatham with the 2023 harvest, with weather patterns producing a wetter vintage and reds that were not as ripe. In that scenario, the saignée method can accentuate the under-ripeness a bit too much.
“Weather patterns were very different in 2023 compared to 2022,” Wehner says, recalling disruptive storm activity that repeatedly brought lots of wind off the ocean and into the vineyard. “And that’s why we changed up the Rosé.”
For 2023, the process involved two early picks of Merlot, gathered from Chatham’s vineyard about two weeks before the actual Merlot harvest. Early picks not only help to get the natural acidity, but also early ripening flavors with notes of a slightly under-ripe, watermelon rind, according to Wehner.
The first pick was de-stemmed cold at 34 degrees with skins on for 12 hours, followed by direct pressing. The very light, very pale liquid was then inoculated with Rosé yeast and fermented for nine months in stainless steel tanks.
During the second pick, three days later, skins were left on the grapes for 24 hours prior to pressing, producing a deeper color. The process extracts more from the skins, but not the tannins, bringing fresh acidity with notes of pink grapefruit.
Wehner then blended equal amounts of both, ultimately producing a brighter, more fruit-forward Rosé with a different color and flavor profile compared to recent bottlings.
“I like both picks for two different reasons,” says Wehner. “You get the watermelon first and the pink grapefruit second, and both have nice acidity.”
The Rosé was cold stabilized at 27 degrees and filtered cold, then warmed up just enough for bottling. “We try to preserve the freshness of that wine,” notes Wehner.
Interestingly, other vineyards in Virginia – those far away from the coast – had a completely different experience with their 2023 harvest, underscoring the uniqueness of Chatham’s coastal location.
A Rosé Reimagined
“I like our 2023 Rosé for what it is, a nice change with fresher, brighter fruit, and a distinct grapefruit character,” says Wehner, contrasting it to previous vintages that were a bit darker in color and featured more berry and watermelon notes. “Mother Nature forces you to adapt, and not make the same style of wine every year.”
Unlike the blends of vintages past, Chatham’s 2023 Rosé is also made exclusively from Merlot grapes, all harvested from vineyard blocks planted in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
“Merlot is a workhorse grape,” Wehner says. “It’s fruity and versatile, and for the 2023 harvest we think it is the best choice for our Rosé.”
Visit Chatham and taste for yourself how the 2023 Rosé lets the fruit shine.