2024 Pinot Noir Rosé

Stories

From Jennifers Harvest Notes: 2024 Rosé

August

The fruit was from Chehalem Mountain—northwest-facing slope, marine sediment soils, and one of the cooler pockets. I’d been walking that vineyard for a few weeks, watching the skins thin and seeds darken. No big decisions, just a slow narrowing. The clusters were small, tight. A bit uneven. But the flavor was there. Plenty of acid. No flab.

 

September 21

Picked at dawn. Cool morning, thankfully. I’d been up most of the night checking gear, rechecking logistics and having a slight panic attack.. this was my first vintage and big girl winery experience.. no pressure. By 6 a.m the kick ass crew was on site. By 9 a.m. I departed with 1 ton loaded on a rental truck to the winery. The fruit came in clean and was ready for pigéage. After pigéage, I let the juice sit on the skins for about 4-5 hours while I prepped the press and gained the courage to dump my first bin. 

The press cycle took longer than I’d planned. I picked rather early, I was going for higher acid and less alcohol and the firmer skins made the press cycle go about twice as long.

Overall.. a very long day... I was hauling bins, cleaning tanks, and trying not die or kill anyone. Wrapped sometime after 10 p.m. Ate chips for dinner. Went to bed wired and wrecked.

 

September 22–24

Juice settled overnight. The color was deep - almost a dark garnet. Looked like it might fade to copper. I debated bleeding off some free run, maybe blending later to fix the tone. Decided not to overthink it. Transferred to two neutral barrels the next day. Wild ferment. No adds.

 

October 2

The ferment took off quickly. Both barrels dropped brix faster than expected, which had me checking temps and headspace constantly. One was a little more expressive than the other—louder, more unruly—but I let them be. Same juice, same room, just letting them find their own rhythm.

October 6

By the end of the week, everything had evened out. The louder barrel settled. The other stayed steady the whole way through. Wild ferments are like that—two wines made side by side can tell completely different stories, even when you swear you did everything the same. You just learn to listen, not interfere too soon.

Mid-October

Ferments went dry, and the wines sat quietly on lees. No acid adjustments, no sugar back, no fining. Just a tiny SO₂ bump when things felt stable. The color held—light, but enough. Flavor leans citrus and underripe stone fruit, with a little edge. The kind of rosé that doesn’t try too hard to be charming.