2024 / Willow Creek District Rosé by Du Beau

A vivid coral-salmon hue sets the tone for a wine that is loaded with coastal zest. The nose is highly aromatic with orange blossom, tangerine, star fruit and sleek minerality, while crunchy acidity floods the mouth with watermelon, citrus zest, wet slate and sea breeze. The wine finishes with an energetic flourish of clean, flashy textures.

The 2024 Rosé was painstakingly curated with organic farming practices, small-batch winemaking and a reverence for site expression

Mourvèdre Clone 369 from flat to gentle slope of Block 1
Grenache Clone 362 from steeply sloped Block 2
Calcareous limestone and clay loam
Elevation range of 1,100 to 1,300 feet
12 miles from the Pacific Ocean
Organically farmed vines

Vinification

Named with a nod to Assistant Winemaker Curren Du Beau
A blend of Mourvèdre (80%) and Grenache (20%)
10 rows of Mourvèdre picked at lower ripeness specifically for rosé production
Direct press (Mourvèdre) and saignée (Grenache) methods
Cold fermented in stainless steel in the Provençale style
Aged for 5 months in stainless steel

Analysis

Alc. 13.9%
TA .77
PH 3.17
Cases 45

We were quite happy with our inaugural 2023 vintage of Rosé - a 97% Mourvèdre based wine that was picked at 22.2 brix and high acids, resulting in a very refreshing and slightly salmon-colored pink wine. With 2024 accumulating degree days at a faster clip than the cool 2023 year, we picked the Mourvèdre for our rosé at nearly the same chemistry as the 2023, but a full 20 days earlier on the calendar. This also happened to be the same pick day as our Grenache, which gave us an option to change up the blend a bit. We pressed the Mourvèdre fruit a few hours after destemming, moving it to a stainless tank for fermentation. Then after the Grenache fruit was destemmed and moved into the big stainless tank, we bled off around 25 gallons and added it to the Mourvèdre juice for a 20% ratio (compared to a 3% Grenache component in the 2023 vintage). So the 2024 was made in a combination of the traditional southern France direct press method with the "saignée" method of bleeding off juice from the red fruit before it ferments to its red wine varietal. Fermentation of the Rosé was in a Provence-style, at cool temperatures in a stainless steel tank. The wine was racked, fined and filtered just prior to bottling in late February 2025. The result is a beautifully colored rosé with an excellent balance of freshness and red fruit flavors.