TOURAINE NOBLE JOUE DPO ROSÉ DOMAINE ROUSSEAU

Noble-Joué (Touraine Noble-Joué), a tiny Touraine appellation, offers a curiosity: rosé or grey wines. This rosé or gris (partridge eye), which is still too confidential, is produced south of Tours on a parcel-by-parcel basis, between the Cher and Indre rivers, on 35 hectares of clay-limestone soil made up of pebbles and flinty clay. It was awarded AOC status in 2001. In doing so, it rewarded the efforts of its winegrowers, heirs to a vineyard that grew to 840 hectares in 1911, but that time had forgotten, that the frost of 1929 had devastated and that the Touraine conurbation had nibbled away. However, an AOC application had been submitted. It was 1939 and the economy was in a bad way! Who remembers that this wine was already appreciated by Louis XI (XVth century), who used to enjoy it when he came back from hunting. It is true that the king was staying not far from there, at his château in Plessis-lès-Tours.
CEPAGE : 50% Pinot Meunier, 35% Pinot Gris, 15% Pinot Noir
SOIL: Flinty sand.
VINIFICATION: The 3 grape varieties are vinified separately. Pressed as soon as they are harvested, the grapes produce a grey wine known as “partridge eye”.
Fermentation took place at a temperature of between 18° and 20° in stainless steel vats with coil cooling for 2 months using natural yeasts. Aged on the lees for 3 months so that the wine becomes rounder and develops more aromas.
TASTING: The dry, hot spring and summer produced grapes rich in sugar and with good aromatic concentration. The 2022 vintage is therefore a gastronomic rosé, powerful and long on the palate. You can enjoy it as an aperitif or with starters.
HOW TO STORE IT: Drink within 2 to 3 years to retain all its freshness. as an aperitif or with starters.