Every year the La Primavera is a bit different, consisting as it does of a blend of juices from the various purple grapes we’re vinifying into red wine (see Composition below). Those juices are pulled from the tanks of crushed grapes between 1 and 24 hours after crushing (a technique known as saignée – French for “bleeding”, because you only bleed off part of the juice), just long enough for the skins to impart a hint of their flavor and color to the juice. Which grape varieties end up contributing to the rosé and in what amounts can vary quite a bit from year to year depending on the ripeness and balance of the fruit as it comes in, as well as which varieties are most suitable for rosé. This vintage is similar to last year’s, with sizable fractions of Mourvedre, Malbec, and Syrah, but Lemberger returns to the blend this year as well, and Tempranillo is still there in a supporting role. The great thing about the saignée technique is that it helps improve the quality of the red wines: by removing some of the juice early on, the flavor and color in those wines become more concentrated.
