2020 Purity Pinot Gris 'Rosehaze’

Region: Contra Costa County < California

Grapes: Pinot Gris

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: CCOF certified organic farming; granite and shallow clay/loam soils; whole clusters were sealed and allowed to rest for 10 days when it was lightly tread by food and left to macerate for several hours before pressing; the fermenting juice was transferred to a poly tank where it completed fermentation over the nect few weeks; bottled unfined, unfiltered with zero added So2; zero-zero; 12% ABV; 130 cases

Winemaker: Noel Diaz

We love Noel, a one-man show based in the Richmond Marina who is obsessive about farming (always chemical free, all by hand) and super low intervention in the cellar, with grapes being the only ingredient in the juice.  Full stop.  Noel has begun giving his wines affectionate nicknames, and this one he calls Rosehaze, rose because, well, it’s a pretty corally-pink and looks like a rosé, and haze, because yes, she's hazy and mysterious. But this is technically an orange wine, given the 10 days on the skins, a Pinot Gris skin-contact style mastered by the Italians in Friuli, where they call it 'Ramato'.  

We call it fun and delicious.  The texture is chewy and fuzzy, with good acidity on top of ripe red fruit and melon. There's a little pleasant funk on the finish, but it never gets weird.  Happy summer juice.  Chill but don't serve icy cold.