The three components for the 2024 Ascendant Rosé - cinsault, mourvèdre, and counoise - were grown and harvested with the intention of making this rosé. Even though these are all red grapes, they were all picked at lower sugar and higher acidity than would have been the case for a red wine, and these vines were pruned and grown with rosé production in mind.

The purpose of our “Ascendant” wines is to be age-worthy representations of the unique terroir of Troon Vineyard. Most rosé wines are typically consumed young, so the Ascendant Rosé is a bit of a rarity, crafted with the intention of aging. Part of this intention is in the blending of varieties. The cinsault adds bright red fruit, whose presence should diminish only slowly over time. The mourve?dre adds body and fruit, complemented by intriguing herbal characteristics. And counoise adds acidity, an absolute prerequisite for extended aging, and minerality to the finish.

In terms of winemaking, following harvest, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed to maintain aromatics and acidity. This has the secondary effect of also minimizing color extraction, leading to a more lightly colored rosè wine - our focus is on wine flavor and balance, not color. After settling for 24 hours, the juice was racked to neutral barrels for fermentation. Both primary alcoholic and secondary malolactic fermentations were spontaneous (“native”) and were completed in barrels over a roughly 5-month period. The wines stayed on their primary lees right up until they were blended in a stainless steel tank for bottling, when a small amount of SO2 was added. The 2024 Ascendant Rosé was bottled unfined and unfiltered.