Growing Conditions
The Kuleto Estate Rosato is made by ‘bleeding’ or draining juice from just-crushed red grapes before the juice has had a chance to pick up much color from the skins. This juice is transferred to its own tank (without skins) and fermented cold to maximize its fresh fruit and floral characteristics. Just before dryness, the wine is transferred to older French oak puncheons (132 gal. barrels) to complete the fermentation. Malolactic fermentation is prevented by the addition of sulftes at dryness, again to keep the wines as fresh and bright as possible. The resulting blend is very complex and represents the aromatic essence of the estate.
A new piece of harvest equipment allowed us to produce our Rosato in a very different manner in 2010. In the past, we had ‘bled’ juice from tanks full of just-crushed fruit. Even after this short time, the juice had picked up significant color. Our new sorting table with drain screen can remove juice within seconds after the berries have been broken in the destemmer, making the Rosato much lighter in color.
While paler, the 2010 Rosato is not lacking in flavor and has a better balance than previous vintages because it’s less tannic. It still possesses the hallmark cotton candy, strawberry blossom and leaf characteristics of a multi-varietal rosé, yet it has a super-clean, refreshing mouthfeel that moon-walks across the roof of your mouth to the back of your palate.