A fresh and enticing Pinot Noir rosé reflects the quality of wines expected from the 2022 vintage on Chamonix Estate situated on the slopes of the Franschhoek mountains. This rosé, which has been just released to the market, is exclusively made from Pinot Noir grapes grown on the estate, which has built up a formidable reputation for the quality of Pinot Noir.

According to Neil Bruwer, Chamonix winemaker, the Pinot Rosé was last year introduced into the estate’s portfolio of award-winning wines to meet the growing demand for rosé in South Africa and around the world.

“Rosé is one of the rising stars in the global wine offering,” he says, “and for some time we have been aware of the South African consumer’s growing fondness for these fantastic blush-coloured wines made in a dry, refined style showing varietal complexity but still being fresh and invigorating.

“Being Pinot Noir specialists, Chamonix used this noble Burgundian variety to make a rosé to the classic Provençal style, although I must say that Pinot Noir lends an added delectable more-ishness to the rosé due to the Pinot Noirs bright flavour profile.”

After harvesting at the zesty levels of ripeness required for a classic rosé wine – in this case 21.2°Balling – the berries are hand-selected at the cellar to ensure only the purest, unblemished grapes make it onto the next phase. Here, free fun juice is given a brief contact with the Pinot Noir’s red skins to draw-off slight colour, before the blush-coloured juice is sent to stainless steel tanks for fermenting. Fermentation is done at a cold temperature, whereafter the wine is kept on the lees for three months for a multi-layered mouthfeel to add to the breezy, delectable berry flavours of the wine.

According to Bruwer, looks to count in the rosé department. “Rosé drinkers begin their association with the wine through its visual appearance,” he says. “Chamonix Pinot Rosé finds itself at a classic salmon, onion-skin colour that are the hallmarks of quality and class in rosé. This is followed by a floral and slight herbaceous whiff on the nose before that charming presence in the mouth takes over. Here the wine is bone-dry and alert, very refreshing, but with complex flavours of strawberry, damson and red apple. The crisp finish ensures the consumer goes looking for that second glass, making the Chamonix Pinot Rosé offering as much class and quality as it does pure, unfettered wine-drinking enjoyment.”