Cuvée de la Pompadour Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine

Rosé wines are often believed to be made only from pinot noir, but many including ours have some chardonnay added. In creating our Rosé we worked to create a wine of great balance using 58% pinot noir and 42% chardonnay, but at the same time, emphasizing fruity and floral characteristics to a greater extent than is evident in the Brut or Le Rêve.

The special fruitiness of the Rosé is obtained in two ways. The first way is to allow part of the pinot juice to spend several days in contact with the grape skins. (This is never allowed to happen with the other sparkling wines.) This extracts both the lovely color and flavor components that enhance the Rosé. The second way is to add back a small amount of red pinot noir wine. This is done to adjust both color and flavor. We do this red wine addition as a way to fine-tune the early skin contact, for example, if the color is a little too light.

Traditionally, fine Rosé sparkling wines and champagnes have been made in very small quantities (and ours is no exception). Often they are produced for a specific customer group or a few restaurants that have a fondness for the salmon-hued wine. In fact, one of our early winery visitors was the impetus for our own Rosé, which was only sold in our Salon tasting room until the Fall 2007.

Our Rosé cuveé is named for Madame de la Pompadour, Louis XV's great paramour. It was she who first introduced sparkling wine to the court at Versailles and is famous for having said that "Champagne is the only wine that a woman can drink and remain beautiful".