Joshua Cooper Wines - Straws Lane Sparkling Rose - 2018

An extremely limited release years in the making. While working in the vineyards of Chablis in 2012 I was lucky enough to spend some incredibly inspiring time visiting the cellars of Champagne’s grower-producers. None spoke to me more than a remarkable evening spent with Jerome Prevost of La Closerie, whose wines remain my most favourite expressions of grower Champagne. The sense that Champagne could and maybe should be produced as a wine first and sparkling second has resonated since. Picking ripe, extracting carefully in the press, slow aging in barrel on lees native to the wine itself- and then crucially, a very minimal time on tirage lees. So as to not dilute the character of the vineyard.  Vivid pale pink in the glass, a sherried top note owing to the flor aging precedes a nose of rose garden, red apple skin and small red berries. Time in the glass revives spice and vanilla bean complexity.  The palate is long and powerful, with a refreshing small fine bead (the wine was also bottled with minimal pressure in mind). Talc-like phenolics from skins and stems provided a bracing structure to the concentrated red berry fruit, finishing clean and dry. 25 dozen bottled Joshua Cooper, Winemaker