This rosé, which has just been released to the market, is exclusively made from Pinot Noir grapes grown on the estate which has built up a formidable reputation for the quality of Pinot Noir.
According to Neil Bruwer, Chamonix Estate winemaker, the Pinot Noir Rosé was introduced into the estate’s portfolio of award-winning wines five years ago to meet the growing demand for rosé in South Africa and around the world and has been an unmitigated success in the Chamonix portfolio.
“Rosé is one of the rising stars in the global wine offering,” he says, “and for some time we have been aware of the South African consumer’s growing fondness for these fantastic blush-coloured wines made in a dry, refined style showing varietal complexity but still being fresh and invigorating,
“Being Pinot Noir specialists, Chamonix uses this noble Burgundian grape to offer a rosé in the classic Provençal style to complement our range of Pinot Noir red wines. As a rosé, Pinot Noir lends an added delectable more-ishness due to the variety’s bright flavour profile and layered complexity, providing a vivacious vibrancy on the palate.”
Despite being two weeks earlier than usual, the 2026 harvest saw grapes with firm acidity, low pH levels, and a commanding varietal character. After harvesting at the zesty levels of ripeness required for a classic rosé wine – in this case 21°Balling - the berries are hand-selected at the cellar to ensure only the purest, unblemished grapes make it onto the next phase. Here, free fun juice is given a brief contact with the Pinot Noir’s red skins to draw-off slight colour, before the blush-coloured juice is sent to stainless steel tanks for fermenting. Fermentation is done at a cold temperature, whereafter the wine is kept on the lees for three months for a multi-layered mouthfeel to add to the breezy, delectable berry flavours of the wine.
According to Bruwer, looks do count in the rosé department. “Rosé drinkers begin their association with the wine through its visual appearance,” he says. “Chamonix Pinot Noir Rosé finds itself at a classic salmon, onion-skin colour that are the hallmarks of quality and class in rosé. This is followed by a floral and slight herbaceous whiff on the nose before that charming presence in the mouth takes over. Here the wine is bone-dry and alert, very refreshing, but with complex flavours of strawberry, damson and red apple. The crisp finish ensures the consumer goes looking for that second glass, making the Chamonix Pinot Noir Rosé offering as much class and quality as it does pure, unfettered wine-drinking enjoyment.”