Karen. Rosé

Pair with salmon gravlax and horseradish cream.

Abundant sunlight helps our vines achieve sufficient bud fertility for us to use hand spur pruning with great success. Shoot and leaf thinning is managed carefully during the summer to achieve desired sun exposure which leads to perfectly balanced grapes at harvest time. Bunch and berry selection in the vineyards take place a few times between véraison (the onset of ripening) and harvest. Merlot grapes with a very high concentration of red and black berry flavours are picked in the early morning of harvest.

In the cellar, the Merlot grapes are carefully whole bunch pressed during a very soft cycle. The juice is tasted frequently and when we reach the desired density and structure the pressing is stopped. Then the juice slowly ferments at low temperatures until completely dry.

Normandie Est. 1693 is a historic Franschhoek wine estate on the slopes of the Groot Drakenstein Mountains, with vineyards planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Explore Normandie wines shaped by mountain soils, a distinctive Franschhoek microclimate and a hands-on approach from vineyard to cellar.