Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Rosé 2011 (Archive)
- W&S
- WS
Reviews
95 Points, Top 100 Best Wines of The Year
Wine & Spirits August 2019
“This is the fifth release of L’Ermitage Rosé since its introduction with the 1999 vintage, and the cool 2011 season earned the wine’s third 95-point score. Arnaud Weyrich selects the fruit for this top cuvée from Roederer’s 580-acre vineyard, planted and farmed for sparkling wine. What sets L’Ermitage apart is the purity of its fruit, completely present and yet delicate, a ghosting of raspberry and currant flavor. Weyrich brings out that fruit essence and achieves the color of the wine by blending in a small portion of still wine from Pinot Noir, taking those grapes through an extended cold soak, then finishing their fermentation off the skins to capture the fruit rather than the tannins. Seven years on the lees has taken that fruit in a savory direction, a gentle evocation of the forest mists of Anderson Valley with an undertow of ethereal raspberry flavor.”
Overview
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” 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.
The wine for the reserve dosage added to the L’Ermitage Rosé 2011 was aged five years in a French oak cask. Following disgorgement, L’Ermitage Rosé 2011 was aged an additional five months on the cork prior to release.
Tech
Appellation: Anderson Valley, California, United States
Varietals: 50.1% Chardonnay, 49.9% Pinot Noir – 3.7% aged reserve wine, vintage 2008 and 2009
Wine Alcohol: 13%
Titratable Acidity: 0.86 g/L
pH: 3.11
Residual Sugar: 10.5
Dosage: 10.5 g/L
Cases Produced: 480 750ml cases, and 110 magnum cases
Tasting Notes
L’Ermitage Rosé 2011 brings complexity and smoothness to a higher level. Aromas of toasted crust, black cherry clafoutis and a hint of caramel: this is dessert in a bottle! The color is the typical delicate copper hues of aged rosé and gives a hint of the finesse and pinot texture enjoyed when tasting this wine.
Latest tasting done on October 2018.
