Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Rosé 2004 (Library)
- W&S
Available for purchase for Wine Club members.
Reviews
95 Points
Wine & Spirits December 2012
Roederer knows rosé. This one is a blend from the top selections of pinot noir and chardonnay grown at their 540-acre estate in Anderson Valley. The blending team attains the color and flavor depth by including a small amount of pinot noir still wine, one that goes through a long cold soak, then finishes fermentation off the skins to minimize the tannic extraction. The result is a rosé that has flavor depth without tasting fruity. It achieves the stylistic goals of Roederer’s wines from Champagne: freshness and finesse. This wine is delicate, with hints of caramel, subtle earthy complexity and fruit depth to balance it. Fine bubbles carry the flavors on a clean line. Classical, if such a thing can be said of a California sparkling wine.
Overview
Founded in 1982, Roederer Estate is nestled in Mendocino County’s fog-shrouded, Anderson Valley. As the California property of Champagne Louis Roederer, Roederer Estate builds upon a centuries-old tradition of fine winemaking. The premium grape growing region’s proximity to the ocean gives rise to a gentle cycle of warm days and cool nights, allowing grapes to mature slowly on the vine and develop full varietal character.
Among the very few California sparkling wine houses that only sources estate-grown fruit, Roederer Estate is also meticulous about all its farming decisions. The winemaking process begins with in-depth knowledge of the Estate soils to introduce open lyre trellis system or high density plantation, extends to the decision to farm vineyards organically and biodynamically, and finishes by painstakingly tracking grape maturity to achieve perfect balance at harvest.
L’Ermitage, Roederer Estate’s special tête de cuvée, is a sparkling wine made only in exceptional years from pre-selected, estate-grown grapes. Carrying on the tradition of Champagne Louis Roederer in France, Roederer Estate produces its sparkling wines in the French méthode traditionelle and adds special oak-aged reserve wines to each blend. L’Ermitage debuted with the 1989 vintage.
Winemaking
Roederer Estate wines are made with juice from just the cuvée pressing; no première or deuxième taille is used. The concept of the vintage L’Ermitage is the same one that is used in Champagne: Only the best of the vintage is selected. These are exceptional wines that create a “noble” (special) blend that allows for longer aging, which produces a fine wine with elegance and finesse.
The rosé blend is crafted using a small fraction of red wine, from Pinot Noir grown on the estate, especially made for this purpose using Burgundian maceration technique that allows skin contact to extract color and aromas. This red wine brings delicate berry flavors and a nice color to further extend the L’Ermitage smoothness and subtleties, allowing for a unique tasting experience.
Tech
Appellation: Anderson Valley, California, United States
Varietals: 50.7% Chardonnay, 49.3% Pinot Noir – of which 3.9% is aged reserve wine from vintage 1999
Wine Alcohol: 12.1%
Titratable Acidity: 1.2
pH: 2.94
Residual Sugar: 11.5 g/L
Cases Produced: 597 750ml cases
Tasting Notes
Delicate salmon color. Tiny bubbles and creamy mouthfeel. Bread crust, baked apples, caramelized hazelnuts; complex and elegant. Notes of quince jelly. Crisp acid finish.
Latest tasting done on August 2011.
