2017 Grenache Rosé
"Eye of the Beholder"

Winemaker's Notes:

This is the second Eye Of The Beholder that I have bottled. Once again, it is a very daring, if not outlandish, style of Rosé. Like last year, there is a big plug of yeast sediment (lees) in every bottle. And this bottling is again a big, rich, creamy wine that juggles punchy fruit with a toastiness that is a reflection of new French Oak and an extended presence of yeast. That contact with the yeast will live on until you open and drink the wine.

This project has been a very interesting journey so far. It has gone a long way toward helping me understand and gauge the effects in general of extended lees contact in wine. This will come handy in the not too distant future as I begin to play with Petillant Naturel (Pet Nat for short) styles for sparkling wines. These bottlings will be more on the crisp side with bubbles, and, like Eye Of The Beholder, they will have at least some degree of lees, the result of a secondary fermentation in the bottles. They may encompass a number of different varieties. So, stay tuned; the journey continues! In the meantime, I am also working on a more, dare I say, normal style of Rosé. It will be much more simple and focused on the varietal character of Petit Verdot in a Rosé form. It will be bottled without any lees, and without the year in a bunch of new French Oak, it will be priced closer to $20 a bottle. It will be very friendly and will be called Love Garden. As soon as I get it bottled from 2018, it will be released.