Konpira Maru MK Rosé 2020
I'm calling them out because one crime is too close to my heart. Pissy, effete Rosé. Describe your Rosé's colour as salmon, I say no thanks. You say peacock eye, aah no no. Copper quince, no merci mon ami. Give me red, give me body, give me bloody flavour. Hurts to say it, but the Spanish get it.
So to spare you a rant, let's just say the MK Rosé is juicy, it's vivacious, it's your overweight neighbour washing the concrete with a hanky as a hat. Chill it down, invite a friend, a person you want to be a friend, a person who thinks you're a friend but you're just bored, hell, anyone will do, and crunch it down with a plate of little frankfurts and tomato sauce.
The wines were blended at the beginning of October and given 6 weeks to come together to produce this absolute beauty of a Rosé. The Quarry Ridge Pinot added the perfect amount of depth and flavour to the delicate, very lightly pressed Eminence fruit. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with a touch of sulphur.
Tasting notes: Aromatics of watermelon and rose petal with a fresh and full palate of lychee and raspberry trifle.
Site: 10% Pinot Noir from Quarry Ridge Vineyard, Kilmore, Victoria. Grown by Russell Browne. Sustainable practices. Volcanic granite on grey sodisol. Remaining 90% Eminence Vineyard, Whitlands, King Valley, Victoria. The Whitlands is termed “the river in the sky”. Lava flow from a volcanic eruption in nearby township tolmie flowed to create this epic parcel of dirt. Eroded lava flow which has created 8m of ferrosol, iron rich volcanic top soil. 830m elevation.
Production: 10% Pinot Noir from Quarry Ridge. 90% lightly crushed and de-stemmed, remaining 10% whole bunch. Wild fermented with a total of 19 days on skins with daily hand plunging. Long and slow press straight to barrel where it spent 6 months with 2 rackings taking place in that time.
40% Pinot Noir, 35% Pinot Meunier and 10% Chardonnay from the Eminence vineyard, Whitlands, Victoria. Pressed to just 50% extraction (500l per tonne of grapes) to prevent smoke carryover, then combined with yeast hulls to bind the remaining smoke and allowing the acidic beauty of the site to shine through. It underwent an extended wild ferment (30% in new Hungarian oak, 70% stainless steel) for 7 weeks before being finally interred in bottle. Racked 3 times over its time in tank.
4555 bottles, 13.3%.'
- Konpira Maru
