Domaine des Dieux Rose of Sharon Brut Rosé Cap Classique 2011 [sample]

I invited a friend around to celebrate Cap Classique Day and share the sparkling wines kindly gifted by Domaine des Dieux. Being the generous host, I allowed the friend to have his choice of bubbles. He chose the Claudia...which meant I had the joy of opening the Rose of Sharon, one of my favourite Cap Classiques, all to myself!

The Wine:

Pale salmon with a medium nose (this had been well chilled) of orange blossoms, red apples, Granny Smith apples, tart cherries, unripe strawberries, raspberry and lemon cake...and I kid you not, there ARE rose petals! I often drink this Cap Classique, but have never sat down quietly to assess it - I'm a little blown away at finding notes of rose petals.

Dry (not as much as the Claudia), medium(-) bodied, and high acidity. With a lovely long finish of red apples, tart sweet limes, nutmeg, a subtle tug of fynbos (I wonder if this could be interpreted as tannin), and a defined metallic oyster shell minerality. The mousse is fine and soft...and the overarching description of this wine is that it is clean and precise and knows what it wants to be,

Viti + Vini:

58% Pinot Noir (Champagne clone 52C) and 42% Chardonnay grapes are sourced from the Hemel-en-Aarde ridge. The Pinot juice is bled off in the saignée method, the base wines are cool fermented in stainless steel vats to preserve their flavour, with a small portion fermented in new oak for added dimension. After secondary fermentation in bottle, the wine spends 48 months on their lees before disgorgment on 29 April 2021.

Find the Wine:

http://www.domainedesdieux.co.za/