Synopsis, Our Opinion: A very special and delicious Rosè.
Producer/Winery: Grown by Junius Lindsay Vineyard; Produced by Childress Winery; Lexington, North Carolina.
Grape Variety: Rosè blend – Grenache and Petite Sirah.
Geographic Appellation: Yadkin Valley, North Carolina.
Vintage: 2016
Price: $19.99
Purchased From: Junius Lindsay Vineyard, Lexington, North Carolina.
Paired With: Garden Salad: kale & romaine greens, black beans with oil and lemon juice dressing.
Tasting:
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He said: Chilled before drinking. Very pale salmon color. Strawberry and a touch of floral in the aroma. Smooth, fruity, dry, crisp acidity and a very long, slightly tart fruit finish. WOW, Rhone Rosè from North Carolina and it has touches of a Rhone Valley wine. Two thumbs up on this one from me…but wait, we know lots more about this Rosè.
We’re on the Junius Lindsay Vineyard e-mail list to receive information about their tasting room events and in early September last year we received an unusual message from them. The short message said the harvest season was starting and if anyone wanted to help with the picking just let them know. Well, neither Vicki or myself had ever harvested grapes at a vineyard before so we just couldn’t resist signing up. When we arrived at the vineyard there was a group of “volunteers” (who were paid for their effort with a bottle of wine) along with an experienced picking crew. After a quick lesson in how to select the good grapes and cull the bad the harvest began with the Grenache grapes. As we were picking Michael Zimmerman, owner of the Junius Lindsay Vineyard, told us he bought young grafted vines ten years ago from the Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, California…one of our favorite vineyards we visit every year when were in California. Unfortunately it had rained the week before the harvest began and spoilage had occurred in the center of some clusters and these grapes were left in the field and not put into the collection buckets. As the pickers advanced down the rows the full buckets of grapes were left along the way and were picked up by a team who drove between the rows and emptied the buckets into a harvest bin on the back of a John Deere Gator. As the bins were filled grapes they were loaded on a trailer that was bound for the near-by Childress Winery for processing. We picked Grenache and a small amount of Petite Sirah that was being turned into Rosè wine and would be ready for drinking the following spring. Soon after returning from our winter in California we spent a delightful Saturday afternoon in the Junius Lindsay tasting room sipping the Rosè we helped harvest. Even though our part was just a tiny element of the whole wine making process, it clearly made the wine very special to us…and to our amazement, how VERY GOOD the wine turned out to be!!! “And now you know the rest of the story”.
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She said: Clear, very pale apricot color. It is not everyday that a person in North Carolina gets to drink the wine made from the grapes that they helped pick, but today we did. What a treat! A pleasant fruity aroma that declined after the first pour, but blossomed into a substantial mouth-feel with good flavor, dryness, and medium body. The flavors lasted into the long finish and rounded out a pleasant tasting experience. Good with the salad, it was also delicious alone as a sipping wine. At $20 it is an expensive rose but one of the best wines from North Carolina I have tasted.
Also see our review of the Junius Lindsay Vineyard Cellar Select Roussanne 2011…an OUTSTANDING North Carolina wine that was listed in the TastedOnline.com Best value wines of 2015; our review of Junius Lindsay Vineyard Second Leaf Viognier-Roussanne 2013 and our July 2014 vineyard visit; the Junius Lindsay Vineyard Syrah Reserve 2010 and on January 1, 2017 the Junius Lindsay Vineyard Syrah Reserve 2010 was picked as the 2016 best value North Carolina wine.
Alcohol Content: 11.5%
UPC Code: 8 98133 00120 5
Imported by: NA
Photos from TastedOnline.com.