I've done a little resorting of our "cellar" and moved some of the Rosé wines that I'd picked up over the last year or two closer to positions of easy access. Not only do we tend to eat a lot of Rosé-friendly meals around our place but most of the BC-produced Rosés that we have are meant to be consumed fairly early in their lives. I think I picked up this Sperling Rosé when we visited the winery on the BC Wine Appreciation Society Bus Tour last Fall.
Prior to that visit, I had written a bit of piece on Sperling Vineyards since I was adding a bottle of their popular Market White to The List. So, rather than simply re-write a lot of that post, I'll just add a link and you can check it out if you'd like to read a bit more about this pioneering family in the Okanagan.
While visiting the winery, however, we did get a bit of the skinny on the winery and this Rosé. When the family decided to move more into wine production and out of farming, they introduced a whole different approach to their vineyard practice. They'd been steadily moving their 45 acres of vineyard into full organic and biodynamic production but they also changed up their commercial farming yield of around 6 tons of fruit per acre down to only 2 tons/acre. With your name going on the wine, it's not surprising that you want the best and most concentrated fruit that you can grow.
Obviously, lower yields result in less wine and those reduced totals were compromised even more with the 2013 vintage when a late hail storm in their part of the Valley ruined about 70% of their crop. Luckily they salvaged enough of the crop to produce this first venture into a 100% Pinot Noir Rosé. Of course, winemaker Ann Sperling is an old hand with all types of winemaking but, for an out of the gates Rosé, it didn't do too badly - winning a Silver Medal at the All Canadian Wine Championships.
Featuring a nice acidity with subdued red fruit, I think I can safely say that this won't be the last of Ann's Rosés that I'll venture to enjoy.
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