Meeker Vineyard Pink Elephant 2009 Dry Rosé - 6 Pack

Ten key error, we’re sort of still in build-out of the site, so that was just a whoops.

Do you have an interior closet? Yes? Then you have room.

While this might be good for summertime quaffing, I just realized it’ll soon be time for Thanksgiving dinner. If I pick up a dry or offdry Reisling as a counterpoint for this Rose I’ll be all set for the feast in November. I’m in.

Disney’s Fantasia always makes me think about Allegro Non Troppo, and the saddest animated skit ever, Valse Triste >> - YouTube

Dry is a term of art in the wine industry. Let me make this one clear, because it’s important:

When a winemaker says the word “dry”, it means that the fermentable sugars are so low that it is not possible for Saccharomyces Cerevisiae to restart fermentation. I’m tired on a Sunday right now, but I believe that threshold is below 30mg/100ml of glucose/fructose.

In other words: DRY MEANS NOT SWEET AT ALL.

Dry has nothing to do with tannins, which is how some people use the term because it sounds like the drying sensation that tannins and acidity give to your tongue. This makes absolute perfect sense, because that’s certainly what it feels like, but the term “dry” to a winemaker has to do with fermentable sugars, not tannins.

So, when I said “dry” in the voicemail, what I meant was “no fermentable sugar remains”. I.E: No residual sugar.

As far as pH goes, I guess I set a very high bar for all you folks after my insanely long posts about acidity and pH the last few times around… the reality is that I don’t have a current pH on the wine because my pH sensor is currently giving me accuracy issues. My educated guess based on a less accurate pH electrode and looking at the pH/TA before we made our acid corrections prior to primary ferm (.407g/100ml TA, 3.57 pH) leads me to believe that after correcting TA to .750g/100ml before primary and then not allowing a M/L fermentation to proceed would have this wine sitting in bottle somewhere in the mid 3.3 range. It’s definitely under 3.5

Texacaliali described this wine to me in an email as a patio pounder. It took, quite literally, every ounce of self-control I possess to not start the Vintner’s Voicemail with something like:

“WHAT’S UP WOOTERS!!! READY FOR A MEGA PATIO POUNDER?!!??!”

Hi Woot! This is my first time posting, seeing as my son tends to try and take everything over. Anyways, I wanted to share with you how and why I came to love rose so much… and why you should too!

When my wife Molly and I started our winery 26 years ago, our mission was to make “big reds” – a goal that has never changed. Along the way, however, we also created our Pink Elephant, which we think of as a “big rosé”. Here’s the story, plus a big-red winemaker’s confession.

In my non-winemaking business life, I was involved in the motion picture and television business, first as an attorney, then as a producer, and later as a studio executive. In the course of those jobs, Molly and I frequently attended the Cannes Film Festival during May in the south of France. While in Cannes we often enjoyed lunches and dinners at several wonderful restaurants located on piers extending out into the Mediterranean. We were always impressed by how many tables were drinking rosé – no matter whether the diners were eating seafood, pasta, chicken, beef, or whatever. Perhaps this should not have been a surprise, since dry rosé is, of course, the dominant wine of the south of France. In any event, I often returned home from Cannes looking to buy a yummy dry rosé from California – back then a difficult task.

But one year I returned with a good idea. I had been reading several articles about the benefits of “bleeding” newly crushed grapes (what the French call “saignée”). Taking juice away from newly crushed grapes changes the ratio of skins (more!) to remaining juice (less!). Since color and tannins come from the grape skins, this results in a bigger red wine. But what to do with the bled juice? It didn’t take much thought to focus on the fact that the bled juice would be perfect for making not only a “big” dry rosé, but also a different style of rosé.

Why different? The grapes for most rosé wines are picked somewhat under-ripe, at least in comparison with the ripeness levels we customarily seek when making our big reds. Harvesting under-ripe delivers three things that are commonly considered desirable for a good rosé: First, the lower sugar level results in a lower alcohol level, much like with sparkling wines, the grapes for which are also harvested under-ripe. Second, since the color from grape skins starts to bleed into the juice as the grapes achieve fuller ripeness, picking early delivers a light pink rosé color. Third, since acid levels decrease as grapes ripen, picking early delivers crisp acid levels in the wine.

Our Pink Elephant is different in all three respects. It is made from grapes picked for our big reds, so they are very ripe and therefore filled with wonderful red-wine flavors. Also, with fully ripe grapes, the color (along with various flavor elements) has started to bleed from the skins into the juice, so Pink Elephant is light ruby, as opposed to pale pink.

But what about acid and alcohol? We add small amounts of water (maybe 3%) to the bled juice to dilute the sugar levels, in effect replacing water that has recently evaporated from the grape vine before harvest – a common practice in all red winemaking, but one that many winemakers avoid discussing. We also (another common practice) add tartaric acid, the predominant natural grape acid, to the Pink Elephant juice to raise its acidity. The result is a light red wine perfect for drinking chilled (like a white wine) with good acid crispness, a reasonable alcohol level, and great red-wine flavors.

There’s one more important point. Most rosé wines are made from one variety only, such as Pinot Noir, Zinfandel or Syrah. Our Pink Elephant, in contrast, is made from whatever grape varieties we choose to bleed each year – a choice that varies year to year, but always involves a number of different varieties. For example, our current 2009 Pink Elephant vintage is a blend of Merlot, Barbera, Zinfandel, Grenache and Syrah.

Finally, my confession: Making big reds started as my home winemaking hobby in the 1970’s, then transitioned to winemaking at our family winery for the past 26 years. I love our big reds and am proud to make them, particularly now with our son Lucas as my co-winemaker. The truth of the matter, however, is that, for at least the warm months of the year, the first wine I reach for when I get home from the winery is a well chilled bottled of Meeker Pink Elephant!

You’re maybe the fourth person I’ve come across who has ever even heard of that movie. My favorite section was the Evolution of Man piece (can’t remember what it was set to, Tchaikovsky maybe?)…

EDIT: just looked it up, it was Ravel.

In for 1.

In for one because Dad popped on to talk. Went for two because of these comments he made in between the wine-stuff-I-should-probably-start-learning-about information:

Recently told by a voice I trust and while I was sober that Roses are delicate and cannot cellar for long. Should this be consumed or gifted out w/in a certain time?

As per this answer above - Good for next summer:

lassow wrote:
Will this elephant still be rosy if it gets laid down until next summer?

YES. I give you my word.
Lucas Meeker
The Meeker Vineyard
www.meekerwine.com
@meekerwine

I loved the Forklift Grenache, and rose’ is one of my favorites. Just clicked the gold button.

Which reminds me, I need to make a trip to Ikea for another wine rack for the basement. :smiley:

Hopefully only two more months…

How dry is this? Anyone know the RS? This deal looks good, but I’m looking for a true dry rose.

Anniversary this week. Nice little extra for the wife. In for one.

Maybe because I am a newb, but how do you determine which vineyard ships to MD?

If you scroll down on the main page past the wine description, there is a list of the ship-to states for this wine.

I think it’s the ballsy-ist movie by Disney!

Sounds tasty… in for 2

WD- Wish the Dogs had beat the Huskers this weekend…! Gave them a scare! Love to hear “Husker Nation” start to panic!