We’ve been talking with Leah Jørgensen of Leah Jørgensen Cellars about her wines.  Today’s discussion is about her 2017 Rosé of Cab Franc.  If you know Leah Jørgensen, it will not surprise you that her rosé is made of Cab Franc.

She is kind of putting Cab Franc on the map in Oregon.  As they poured us a glass of this beautiful light pink/copper wine…I’ll let her tell.

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

This is our Rosé of Cab Franc and you notice it’s very very light pink.  Ballet slipper pink is what I call it.  If you do a saignee, you’re going to get a darker color.  I don’t.  In the Loire Valley they do more whole cluster and that’s what we’ve done here and so when you just dump it right into the press, you’re gonna get a very very fine pale pink.  When you have Loire rosés from Cab Franc, they are always going to be this sort of onion peel skin, just a very light ballet slipper.

I love it, it’s coppery, it’s pretty and it’s very savory, it’s very dry and it’s….pink grapefruit and then savory, like herbal.  Sometimes I get a  little tarragon on it or elder flower, lime blossomy, orange blossom I guess, marmalade? I don’t know, it depends on my mood, what I’m tasting.

So you say that this is full cluster?

Yes, whole cluster, just dump it right in the press.

So with that, is it a really gentle press.

Yes, we do a white wine press.

So you are really not getting off of the whole clusters that way.  Not a lot off the stem inclusion.

No and the truth is, red wine gets it’s color from the skins and that’s really from fermenting and getting deep extraction and doing cold soaks. So the berry is getting macerated slowly and naturally and you are getting more extraction.  We’re not doing any of that, so we’re not fermenting on any of that.  So we are literally pressing it to get this salmon color pink juice and then we basically rack into a tank that we chill for about 24 to 48 hours and then we rack back into, with the rosé, another tank, a stainless steel, this is all stainless steel and then it ferments in that tank.  So you’re letting things just settle out but you’re still retaining a little color and it tends to get just lighter and lighter when fermentation completes.

Buxton Vineyard in the Rogue Valley

So what is special about that vineyard for you?

While the other vineyards that we work with in the Rogue have inter-marine shellfish this particular place is on a different part of the Rogue Valley it’s closer to Del Rio Vineyards, it’s on the other side of I-5 basically.  It used to be under the Rogue River, so there’s River stone everywhere.  It looks like Bordeaux basically, there’s just smooth river stones throughout the vineyard, but it’s still that clay, silty loam, river bottom soils.

Buxton Ranch and Vineyard sits just Northwest of the Rogue River near White City and Eagle Point.  In addition to the 25 acre vineyard, they are a ranch and raise grass fed Angus/Wagu beef.