Anne Amie Rose of Pinot Noir 2019

The Story

The Anne Amie Rose of Pinot Noir 2019 is an estate farmed, produced, and bottled Rose‘ sourced from vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton and Chehalem Mountain districts of the Willamette Valley in western Oregon. Anne Amie Vineyards is a privately owned winery founded in 1999.

This Rose‘ is a brand new wine for Anne Amie and they have not gotten around to adding the wine to their website, so I do not have production tidbits to pass along. But this is an interesting wine we will have a fair amount to talk about.

Willamette Valley is my favorite Pinot Noir and a Rose’ of Pinot Noir is the flip-side of Pinot Noir wine. When a winemaker produces a Red wine they have to take into account the tannins (a chemical compound found in grape skins) and the flavor influence of oak barrels. They concentrate flavors and texture in the wine to seamlessly blend with the oak and tannins, it is a balancing act.

Rose’ juice only has contact with the grape skins long enough to get the desired pink color (usually a few hours). Rose’ wine, especially in this price range (I found it for $14.99) do not have new oak aging. If oak barrels are used they are typically neutral oak, which are barrels that have released all their flavor.

Since there are little in the way of tannins and oak influence a winemaker has no need for the same production techniques as regular Red wine (in this case, Pinot Noir). Flavors and textures that can get overpowered in regular red wine are allowed to breathe and come to the forefront. And if you are paying attention, you can pick up flavors in a Rose’ that if you look, can now find hidden in a glass of Red wine.

If you are a fan of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, a Rose’ of Pinot Noir can help you start to find all the interesting nuances in the wine. If you are simply a Rose‘ fan and Pinot Noir does not really do it for you, then these Rose’ wines can be excellent.

Another point I want to make is choosing a wine at a wine shop based on the label. Some folks will tell you that that is a bad idea, but I disagree. The label to the Anne Amie Rose of Pinot Noir 2019 is beautiful, very eye-catching.

My bottle shot does not capture the entire label it wraps around the bottle. It is a painting of a garden, but not a still-life reproduction. All the elements of a garden are included, but things are placed where the artist chose, not where nature would dictate. The colors are both eye-catching and muted, there are contrasts.

At this point, I have the bottle open and a glass poured but I do not know how this Rose’ tastes. But if I am right about what the label is signaling to me, this is a bright, fresh Rose’, with style and differing contrasts of flavor. It isn’t merely a simple almost no manipulation Rose‘, but has elements the winemaker intended to showcase. The label is a representation of what to expect with your first sip.

Now that is my theory on wine bottle labels and it seems to work for me. But then again it may be my imagination fitting square pegs into round holes. The alcohol content is a relatively mild 12.7%.