Ahhh, Napa

Perfect weather. Perfect food. Perfect wine.
My wife, Erin, and I just got back from Napa and wow, where to begin! It was an incredible trip to one of my favorite places in the world. The landscapes are so beautiful it's as if your eyes are deceiving you. The weather is so perfect it makes you question why people live in the south. There isn’t bad food anywhere. Oh, and there’s wine!

MacMurray Estate Vineyards Central Coast Pinot Noir 2019


So many wineries went above and beyond hosting us throughout the week. Each of the 15 or so wineries we visited had incredible wines to share and an amazing story to tell. What stood out each visit changed from place to place. It was the wine at some and the history at others. At MacMurray it was the land- a ranch that sat inside a bowl curtained from the world by a beautiful ridge. It was the most jaw-dropping property we saw all week. 


The history of the property didn’t lack though. Colonel Hugh Porter packed up his family in Virginia in the early 1840s to set out for land in the west. His wife and children traveled in a wagon until they came across this ranch in the now named Russian River Valley, only a dozen miles or so from the Pacific coast. Just imagine traveling from coast to coast in a wagon! And before the Gold Rush even began! Sheesh, what an adventure. As one of the earliest pioneers of the region, Porter pretty much had his pick when it came to land. Having seen it from the ridge myself, I understand exactly why he chose the spot he did. 

The Porters settled there, built a cabin, and started homesteading. When the Civil War was beginning to ramp up, Colonel Porter left his family to ride back to Virginia to fight for the Confederacy. He survived and when the war was over rode back to join his family on the ranch. When his days were up his son took over, and his son after that. The Ranch changed hands when it was purchased in 1941 by actor Fred MacMurray as a getaway from Hollywood. I honestly didn’t know much about Fred MacMurray but apparently he was one of the biggest stars of his day- worth a quick Google. He put most of his energy into raising Scottish Aberdeen Angus, which he took much pride in. He raised his family on the Ranch and passed away in 1991. Now by this time The Russian River Valley had begun to grow thanks to the success of nearby Napa Valley. In 1996, the Gallo family asked to meet with the MacMurrays who accepted the invitation. Gallo soon purchased the property with the promise to keep the integrity of the land and maintain its devotion to agriculture. They quickly planted pinot noir and pinot gris on the property. The Russian River Valley is a cooler climate region, perfect for pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot gris. (If you’re unfamiliar with Gallo, the family is worth 11 Billion dollars and is the largest exporter of California wine. They own everything from Allegrini, Barefoot, Lamarca, Orin Swift to Carlo Rossi, Mark West, and Dark Horse. Recently they acquired Black Box, Manischewitz, Clos du Bois, Taylor and a couple dozen other brands from Constellation for about a billion bucks.) 


We got to spend the day on the ranch with Kate MacMurray, Fred’s daughter, who grew up on the ranch and knows it better than anyone. She has now worked for Gallo for two decades as a spokesperson for the ranch and the wines that come from it. She was amazing ha! We were the only people there. We listened to her tell us the history of the place as she led us around the property, through the barns, the farmhouse she grew up in, and then up to the top of the mountain. They’ve done an incredible job at keeping everything true to its roots. The house was so amazing it will be hard to describe. All of the original furniture and appliances have been returned to the home as well as most of the decor. During renovation, some of the original wallpaper that depicts a family on a farm was damaged. They had a wallpaper historian and artist come in and recreate the wallpaper to identically match the original, even in its old age, to replace the torn areas. I say this to explain how much care has gone into keeping this place as it’s always been.

If I could create both my own indoor dining room and outdoor community table and grill space I would model them after those spaces in this house. This house and its decor were MADE for a beautiful farm surrounded by close hills that reach straight to the sky. It’s beautiful. The vineyards on the backside of the ridge were unreal in their expanse. The rolling vineyards seemed to roll off the ridge in the distance. The view from the top was incredible in every direction. I can’t imagine stumbling onto a property like this and deciding to settle there. It must have been an easy decision, especially after traveling all that way. 


When it comes to properties like MacMurray, Gallo has done a great job at preserving the place's history and style. They farm those vineyards thoughtfully and do what they can to mess with it as little as possible. They farm organically and even have a falconer that uses his trained falcon to hunt critters in the vineyards that snack on the fruit. Amazing. They use the 50/50 rule which ensures that only 50% of the land will ever be planted with vines and the remaining 50% returned to its natural state. 


Kate and Paden were amazing hosts. They opened some old and special bottles for us, begged us to come back soon and spend more time there, promising that we’d barbecue one night at the farmhouse. We left wishing we could have spent the rest of the day there but we had our next appointment to get to. We tasted better wine at a handful of places but overall, this was our favorite visit of the week. 

Rombauer Zinfandel 2019


Rombauer was started by Koerner and Joan Rombauer in 1980 and has since become one of Napa’s most well known wineries. They are most known for their Chardonnay. It is the epitome of big and buttery and kinda put that style on the map. People LOVE it, and I sell so much of it. But it is a style that if you don’t love, you hate. I think the market is moving away from big buttery chardonnays and moving towards unoaked little malo chards that are brighter, crispier, and more refreshing. If you haven’t had it, it is worth a taste but also isn’t cheap. None of their wines are. Chard-$45 ($43 at Frugal), Zin- $40 ($38 at Frugal, $35 Preston’s Picks Wine Club Member). 


I was indifferent about visiting Rombauer on our trip. It’s a winery that has become so defined by their chardonnay that someone who doesn’t love chardonnay, like myself, might unfairly turn their nose up at the name. 


But I am so glad we visited. The winery was beautiful and offered one of the best views on the entire trip. The gardens that surrounded the winery and covered the hillside were gorgeous, but not too gorgeous ha. It felt like a grandma’s garden that she poured all her time into, not like a mansion or chateau with precisely planned gardens. It was homey. One cool thing about Rombauer is that it is still family owned and has avoided acquisition by the larger companies. You really can tell while there. 


Their chardonnay isn’t the only wine of theirs that’s big and bold. All of their wines are. I love their Zinfandel for many reasons. While big and jammy and on the border of sweet, this zin is a classic example of Napa zinfandel in every way. 


After prohibition zinfandel took on the role as California’s most popular grape. It then fell out of style, which pushed producers to start using it to make sweet rosé they called White Zinfandel. This pink wine exploded in popularity but honestly killed the reputation of the grape with serious wine drinkers. It has more recently come back into popularity as sweeter jug wines have started to lose pull in the market. The warm climate of Napa makes these zins rich in flavor. Zinfandel grown in this climate in combination with the Rombauer style makes for a zinfandel that is as decadent as chocolate cake (a great pairing). 


Fun fact: We thought zinfandel was an American grape for the longest time. We just wanted it so badly to be true. It was known as our ‘national grape’ and thought to be the best of what was native to the Americas. But when DNA testing rolled around we found out that it wasn’t native, but in fact, primitivo from Puglia, Italy. So when you’re in the Italian wine section and see primitivo on the bottle, know that that is zinfandel. 


You’ll taste chocolate and vanilla, blackberry jam, blueberries, plums, and a touch of pepper. You’ll even get some dried fruits, figs, and raisins, unique in such a young wine, but speaks to its oak aging and ripeness of fruit. 

Along with MacMurray Ranch, Schramsberg was a favorite visit! We love bubbles, but it wasn’t just the wine that sold us on Schramsberg. It was the place and the people. We spent half the day with Laurent, the VP of Sales who I met last year through my Lipman rep/friend's wife who works for Wilson Daniels, who happens to be Schramsberg’s supplier. Laurent was an incredible host, giving us a backstage tour of the property and winery and tasting us on some incredible wines. The land was beautiful and the stories amazing. Started by German immigrant Jacob Schram in the late 1800s, Schramsberg is one of Napa’s oldest. It was purchased by the Davies family in 1965 and is still owned and operated by them today. 

What stood out here were the caves that have been dug into the mountain side over the course of the century. The caves were crammed wall to wall and floor to ceiling with millions of bottles of aging sparkling wines. The sight was nerve wracking and mind blowing. I wanted to include a bottle of Schramsberg this month but at $45 it would have put us way over budget ha! Next time you need a good bottle of Champagne, try Schramsberg instead. It’s been the official sparkling wine of the White House since Nixon served the 1969 vintage of blanc de blancs to the Chinese Premier in the 1972 “Toast to Peace” in Beijing. The last few bottles of 1969 vintage in existence are in the White House wine cellar. Schramsberg has been served by every President at Presidential dinners since Nixon. 

Ashes and Diamonds served us the best meal we had all week! Although it was close competition. Steve Matthiason and Diana Snowden make the wines for this project that focuses on single vineyard cabs, estate cab franc, and old world blends. The wines are amazing, but expensive. A few of you came to the private tasting I hosted at Frugal a few weeks ago with Ashes and Diamonds so you know just how tasty they are. We got to taste some amazing bottles of single vineyard wine that don’t get to go to market which is always fun and special. The food tho. The meal was beautiful and built perfectly around the wines. The winery and tasting room is dope too. With its modern architecture, it stands out like a sore thumb.

The best wines I tasted all week were at Heitz. And that’s high praise, because we tasted some incredible wine. The tasting room and winery has recently been renovated after the company was purchased by the Lawrence family (a little Nashville connection for ya. Arkansas banking fam, but they live in Nashville). The space was beautiful and fancy! If you remember, you got a bottle of the Heitz Grignolino 6 or so months ago. It’s a lighter bodied italian variety that they have grown on the property since Joe Heitz purchased the land in 1961. 


Well I hope you savored the moment because that was the final vintage. They are no longer making that bottling sadly. With new ownership comes changes, some good some bad. I gave ‘em a hard time about it while I was there though so maybe they’ll change their plan. 😉

I also gave ‘em a hard time about changing their label, the label they’ve used since 1961, but alas here we are. Moving on. While there we were able to taste through a handful of single vineyard cabs and a few vintages of Martha’s Vineyard, their most famous wine. When I tell you these wines blew my mind, I’m not exaggerating. “HOW DOES THIS WINE TASTE LIKE THIS!?” was the only thing I could really come up with at the time. The depth of flavor, the balance, the nuance, all insane. Perfect wine. It’s wild but Martha’s has a finish of eucalyptus. It’s an incredible bright herbaceousness that gives the wine this unique depth. Come to find out that next door to Martha’s Vineyard, there’s a eucalyptus grove. Awesome.

Some of our other favorite experiences were at the Faust Haus, the new Louis Martini (9) tasting room, the Bubble Room and tasting menu at J, the Chȃteau at Domaine Carneros, and Rudd (wow this place was incredible. Like a bond villain's lair (Also some of the best wine we had all week. If you ever make a trip out there, don’t go without letting me know! 

Less Words, More Pics

The Wine Press

Preston Reviews Willamette Valley! (Part 6 - Tasting Guide)

By Preston Hunt • 15 Nov, 2023
We drank a good amount of wine on the trip. Here’s the list of the wines we drank in a formal setting (that means we swish and spit). It does not include all the wines we actually drank at dinner or the incredible wine bars we visited like Division Wine Co. in Portland. Comprehensive list of wines tasted and my tasting notes (alphabetical by winery) I included relevant and/or interesting bits of information like retail price, clone, source, aging if unusual or obvious, some blurbs about the year, reasons for producing at all, etc. I mark only my favorites with “Good”, “Good+”, “Good++”, and “Great!”. These scores are as much preference as they are comments on the quality of the wine. We really didn’t have a bad or poorly made wine the entire trip. You’ll see only 7 wines designated “Great”, 10 wines designated “Good++”, 8 wines designated “Good+”, 14 wines designated “Good”, and 60 wines that weren’t quite worth calling a favorite although most were still delicious. Note: I know the prices can be painful. I take price into account when noting how much I like it. Also, If I do not mention a clone or specific place it is simply because it isn’t necessarily notable, or it’s a blend of clones and places. I tried to keep notes short, so you’ll actually take a look ha. Let me know if you’d like me to try to acquire any of these for you. Also keep an eye out for fun patterns, like how wines change over small verticals or how similar wines from the same vineyards are, even if they’re made by different wineries.

More Pics from the Willamette Valley Trip (Part 5)

By Preston Hunt • 15 Nov, 2023
There were so many other incredible stops on our trip. Click a picture to learn more.

Chehalem and The Willamette Valley’s 3rd Champion Pinot Gris (Part 4)

By Preston Hunt • 15 Nov, 2023
Stoller was the final stop on our trip. They were one of the wineries that were kind enough to put us up for the night in one of their guest houses, which made us feel like royalty. It was an incredible way to end an incredible trip. Chehalem is a sister winery of Stoller that focuses on single vineyard pinots. We rolled up to the incredible Stoller property, honestly, pretty exhausted from a long week. The sun was soon to set as we sat out back on the patio. The view of the property from our table was quite expansive, as you can see in the pics below, and the setting sun lit it beautifully. We drank some wonderful pinot gris over the course of the week, notably at King Estate where we came to find out the grape’s aging potential, and here at Stoller where the Chehalem PG sings of flowering fruit trees. Pinot gris is the third, and final, variety I must mention. There is actually more pinot gris planted in the Willamette Valley than there is chardonnay but that is soon to change as more and more people are tearing up gris to plant chard. Pinot gris is the same thing as pinot grigio to be clear. Some will argue its difference but most of those are differences in production styles and terroir. It is the same exact grape genetically. This PG was sourced from the wineries namesake, the Chehalem Mountains, a small range and AVA that is in the middle of the valley. This small range would have been one of the only islands in Lake Allison after those Missoula floods, making its peak perfect for grape growing. Chehalem Pinot Gris is fermented in stainless steel. It smells and tastes of white flowers and candied peaches and apricots and lemon. It is crisp and delicious. It’s a great example of pinot gris from Oregon. Drink now. Drink cold.  Stoller was the perfect finish to a perfect trip. The wines were amazing and our accommodations ideal. We sat outside late into the night looking at the stars and drinking wine. The girls saw a handful of shooting stars, but as my luck would have it, I did not. That is, until we were headed inside. Right out of the corner of my eye one streaked across the sky. It was as if the valley was tipping its hat to me in farewell.

Cristom and Single Vineyard Pinot Noir (Part 3)

By Preston Hunt • 14 Nov, 2023
Cristom was our second stop on the trip and one of our favorites of the week. I was so excited to not only see the winery and vineyards but to revisit the wines as these aren’t wines I get to drink often. I love Cristom. This winery was my first real exposure to high quality Willamette Valley pinot noir. They really opened my eyes to the beauty of pinot from Oregon and the practices that it takes to create them. Like I mentioned, most wineries we visited are biodynamic, Cristom included. Mitch was our host. He immediately threw us in the truck and sped up the hill pointing sites out along the way, mostly biodynamic ones. We sped by their compost piles, the horn pits, the stag’s bladders filled with yarrow flowers hanging from trees, and wild flower fields. Once we got on top of the ridge we were taken by the view. The vineyards of Cristom sit perfectly in front of the Van Duzer Corridor and thus are swept with a constant breeze. This is the Van Duzer Corridor , the only gap in the Coastal Mountain range that allows that Pacific ocean breeze to sweep through and into the valley helping regulate temperatures and keep things cool. This view from the top of Cristom was incredible. You can see straight ahead where the mountains dip down, and then just to the right and out of sight, they reach back up. It is a perfectly shaped gap in the range that is crucial in creating a climate suited for these vines. Wineries that are smack dab in the middle of it, like Cristom, benefit the most. Location location location. Cristom is all about place . They bottle pinot noirs that have been sourced from single vineyards, each showing a different terroir and micro climate. It is hard to believe, because they are all pinot noirs and all the single vineyards are right next to each other, but these wines all tasted so different. It was fantastic to taste them side by side. There is a great map of the estate on the back of every bottle. Check it out. You can read my tasting notes of each wine below. As you can see by my wine list and tasting notes at the bottom, Cristom is focused almost entirely on pinot noir. They make some amazing chardonnays and pinot gris and even some viognier and syrah (a real treat), but single vineyard pinot noir is what they do best. They aren’t cheap, but you should definitely keep them in mind for a special occasion. I usually keep two at a time at the store. I currently have Eileen and Louise on the shelf. You can read about them at the end of this letter. When your focus each year is making the same 5 wines from the same 5 vineyards you learn so much about those places. Cristom knows their single vineyards so well and the way they express themselves. They know the best ways to tend to those places to display their specific terroir through the wines they produce. Their single vineyards- Eileen, Marjorie, Jessie, Louise, Paul Gerrie all slightly face different directions at slightly different altitudes, with slightly different soil compositions. Even though they all are planted with pinot noir the wines that are produced from them taste completely different. That is both the magic of Cristom, but also the magic of pinot noir, a grape that is easily influenced by its terroir and the things that are done to it in the winery. I suggest you start with their Willamette Valley bottling, meaning the fruit was pulled from more than one sight but all within the Willamette Valley. Most of the fruit in this bottle came from their single vineyards so the quality is there, it just doesn’t speak of place like the single vineyards do. The rest of the fruit in this wine comes from a few of their neighbors in the Eola-Amity Hills. Bang for your buck this bottle is hard to beat. It is a wonderful expression of pinot noir that is super quality for under $40. This Willamette Valley bottle was hand harvested from sites on volcanic soils in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. It was fermented about half whole cluster (that is with stems) and aged for 10 months in French oak, 22% of which was new oak. It tastes of red cherries, bramble, blackberry leaves, some earth and dried herbs and baking spices. The whole clusters can be tasted in some of those earthy notes and tannin structure. This wine is food wine. Pair with a whole baked chicken with herbs, charcuterie, pizza, or a mushroom dish. Drink now. Drink cellar temp (cool to the touch but not cold).

Bryn Mawr, Where Chardonnay Reigns (Part 2)

By Preston Hunt • 14 Nov, 2023
The views!! The best views we had the entire trip. Bryn Mawr hangs on the edge of a mountain that overlooks the entire valley, and David Lauer is king of that mountain and was our host for this short but significant stop. David is the VP of Sales and Marketing and son of owners, Jon and Kathy, who purchased the property in 2009. We met last year when he visited Nashville to show his wines around town. That was my first time tasting the wines, but definitely not my last. Following that meeting I put all 3 of the wines available to me on the shelf. David sold me on the wines, the story, and the mentality of Bryn Mawr. When we decided to go to the Willamette Valley and started planning, I knew I had to make it by Bryn Mawr. David was a fantastic host, but we barely caught each other. He was headed out of the state for a wine dinner and we had a full day booked with only about an hour and a half to spare. But we put it to good use. After a walk around the winery, totally full and being prepped for harvest, we settled out back on the porch to taste through some wines while staring out at that amazing view. They are so high up, in fact, that you can see 110 miles from right to left and nearly 40 miles straight ahead. There is a spectacular view of the Van Duzer corridor (something I’ll talk about later) and a cool breeze that never stops. So cool that they can often harvest 2-3 weeks later than the rest of the valley. Bryn Mawr loves chardonnay. One of David’s main points was that chard reigns at Bryn Mawr and, he strongly believes, will reign over the entire valley in the near future (something that would have sounded ludacrious even 3 years ago). But, he wasn’t the only one. We heard over and over again, from winemaker after winemaker, that chardonnay isn’t only on the up but the future. Bryn Mawr is ahead of the game, even going as far as to pull up some of their pinot vines to plant chardonnay, something that many would still call crazy. Bryn Mawr chardonnays aren’t only their best sellers but their most critically acclaimed. They are chardonnays you will love. Light on the oak, bright and crisp but deep in flavor. One of the big revelations of the week was chardonnay, when we realized by the end of the trip they had been some of our favorite wines. It has been a long time coming, David told us. For years Willamette Valley producers tried to mimic either the buttery ripe styles of Napa or the crispy styles of Chablis or nuanced styles of Burgundy. It is only in recent years that producers in Oregon have started to find their own style, and it isn’t one taken from these other regions. It is one of their own, one that sits somewhere in the in between. And it is amazing! This was my first full push into Oregon chardonnay, one I am super happy about and one I’ll preach hard going forward. David wasn’t just focused on chardonnay, but anything against the grain. He preached, “Everyone here makes amazing pinot noir, why not make something different? How else will we stand out? Rachel (Rachel Rose - Winemaker and Vineyard Manager) has taken this and run with it.” He embodied this idea of difference and I love that. He poured for us an estate Tempranillo and, the star of the show, an estate Dolcetto. He dove into a story about pouring the Dolcetto for some Italian men that ranted and raved, and how Dolcetto fits so well into the climate and terroir of the Eola-Amity Hills but nobody would ever think to plant it or risk wasting good land on it, and his vision for varieties like these to grow in Oregon. The Dolcetto was amazing. We brought a bottle of it home. Overall this was one of our favorite stops and the Bryn Mawr WV chardonnay ($25) is currently one of my favorites. It is typical of Willamette Valley Chardonnay in that it has a balance that California and Burgundy have gotten away from. It touches oak, but mostly neutral oak. It is fermented in sandstone and used oaked and aged in those same vessels sur lie for 11 months before bottling. It is crisp and dry and tastes of lemon, pear, some ginger and spice. Drink now. Drink cold. I can’t wait to get back and spend more time at Bryn Mawr. One of the most memorable wines we drank the entire trip was the Bryn Mawr Estate Pinot Noir 2020, which was a wildfire year when most producers chose not to make wine. But Bryn Mawr made wine. See below to find out why. It is more of that authentic difference that I love about this place. (You can find more notes like this in the Tasting Guide (Part 6). Bryn Mawr Estate Pinot Noir 2020 Fire year. Most people we talked to didn’t make any wine in 2020 or only white because the white grapes were pulled before the smoke moved in. But Bryn Mawr made their wine and David's excuse was amazing. He spoke to fires being a part of the region’s story now, like it or not. Wine people talk constantly about wine telling the story of time and place, “unless it's a story of a time or place we don’t like,” David cracked. Their 2020 wines tell the transparent story. They evoke a memory, one of pain yes, but a memory of a specific time and place. How cool is that?! There was smoke on the nose, but not much on the palate. It is juicy and spicy. They didn’t simply make the wine like normal but crafted them with the knowledge that smoke would be a major flavor in the wine. They used less oak, a fast ferment, lab yeast, and tried to keep it as juicy as possible. It isn’t even close to the best wine we had but it might be the coolest and most authentic, and to me that counts for a lot. I also think it will come to serve them in the future with more and more possibilities for fires. Practice makes perfect, they say. ($40)

Frugal MacDoogal Wine Team Visits Willamette Valley (Part 1)

By Preston Hunt • 14 Nov, 2023
In September I went on, possibly, my favorite wine trip ever, and I’ve had the privilege of taking some incredible wine trips all around the world. The trip was so amazing I hope you’ll excuse the length of this post and settle in with a coffee, or better yet, a glass of pinot noir and read from top to bottom. There’s a lot to take from the Willamette Valley- a lot to learn about the current state of pinot noir and chardonnay and a lot to learn about the direction in which pinot and chard are going. I think the Willamette Valley will be at the center of all the change, the movements, and the growing popularity of pinot and, just as notably, the exciting rebirth of American chardonnay. I was lucky enough to get to go out for a week with two of my favorite people and spend time jumping from winery to winery learning the ins and outs of Oregon wine country. We lucked out with perfect weather and arrived at the most beautiful time of year when grapes hung full and ready on the vines, one week before harvest. The wines were amazing, the views spectacular, and our hosts were so generous. The food was incredible, the little towns were perfectly quaint, the coast was jaw-droppingly epic, and our Airbnb in Newberg was dope. It was a relaxing week compared to wine trips I’ve taken in the past. We flew out on the 1st, visited 12 wineries over the following 6 days, spent one day and night in Portland, and landed back in Nashville late on the 9th. Our appointments were perfectly spread out, as were the wineries- beautiful drives from each to the next. It reminded me more of Champagne than Napa, vineyards more spread out and strategic than crammed on top of one another. The valley is still made up of small farm towns and that culture hasn’t yet been, and hopefully never will be, stripped. Luckily for us, and them, tourists don’t yet outnumber locals. It wasn’t only an informative learning experience and successful business trip, it was a much needed week of R&R before OND (October, November, December) our industry’s busiest time of year. It was such a great trip that it was hard to come back to Nashville. If you’ve never been, you must add it to your list. It was my first time and I am already planning to return.

A pilgrimage to the heart of Champagne!

By Preston Hunt • 13 Sep, 2023
An homage to craftsmanship and a celebration of the exquisite art of winemaking

Two weeks in Spain, one year to ship, finally the payoff!

By Preston Hunt, Wine Manager • 10 May, 2023
We hope you'll enjoy this blog post, taken from the monthly Preston's Picks Wine Club content that accompanies each group of wines received by Club Members.
Harvest! Blog post by Frugal MacDoogal Wine Manager, Preston Hunt

Harvest

By Preston Hunt, Wine Manager • 05 Oct, 2021
But first, harvest! Preston Hunt, Frugal MacDoogal Wine Manager also manages a vineyard in his spare time! Read about this year's harvest that he once again shared with friends and family.
Rosé wines at Frugal MacDoogal Nashville.

Let's Talk Rosé

By Preston Hunt, Wine Manager • 15 Jul, 2021
There are two main ways to make rosé wine: short skin contact time and blending. Most rosés we drink are made using the first method. This skin contact time is called maceration. Red wines gain their color, tannin, and some flavors by being crushed and soaked with the grape skins. Rosé wine is made using the same red wine grapes but without being soaked on the skins. Thus, the wine takes very little color, little to no tannins, and only certain flavors during fermentation. Very few rosé wines are oak-aged.
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