2023 Filomena Wine Company, Cabernet Pfeffer Rosé, Sileto Vineyard, San Benito County.
The bright orange/salmon hued Filomena Cabernet Pfeffer Rosé, handcrafted by Luke Nio, who is formerly winemaker at Morgan Twain-Peterson’s Bedrock Wine Company and Green & Red Vineyard, is zesty, mineral crisp, and shows off cool toned, but expressive fruit layers including tart plum water, sour cherry, currant, orangey citrus, along with a touch of dried lavender, saline infused wet rock, Asian spice and extremely delicate seeped floral notes. Cabernet Pfeffer, also known as Mourtou, is a distinct grape varietal that is believed to be a late 19th-century crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and an as of yet unknown vitis vinifera vine and was often confused with Gros Verdot, though it is now known to be an unrelated grape. Cabernet Pfeffer, known as either Cab Pfeffer or just Pfeffer, is almost entirely found on the central coast, especially in San Benito County, though a few vines are still in some heritage vineyards in the Sonoma and Napa valleys. Nio’s Filomena Rosé, with an extra year on it, reminds me a bit of Clos Cibonne, with a sense of depth and maturity, one of world’s most interesting Rosé offerings and I think it has another year or so to fully evolve, which is pretty impressive. I recently tried a few new releases from Filomena and they were exceptional, I highly recommend checking them out, with the Vermentino and Massa Estate Cabernet being real gems.
Filomena Wine Company, founded by winemaker Luke Nio in 2014, is celebrating a decade of releases, has a tiny production with a focus on beautifully crafted small lot wines, with some unique varietals getting a spotlight, like one of my new favorite Filomena wines made from the rare Austrian varietal Saint Laurent, which I have reviewed here at grapelive.com and this Rosé made from the rare Cabernet Pfeffer. Nio used grapes cool from a night time pick and he did a gentle foot-trod, allowing for skin contact to last overnight and getting some structural extraction, adding to the complexity, which has benefited this long cool vintage. Then the Cabernet Pfeffer was whole cluster pressed to stainless steel where is saw an indigenous yeast fermentation and a short lees aging. The results are again as impressive and they are refreshingly tasty, putting this Cabernet Pfeffer dry Rosé into the same league as some of my must have California examples, right up there with Arnot-Roberts Touriga Nacional Rosé and the Bedrock Ode to Lulu, the Mourvedre based pink that is a Bandol style Rosé and tribute to the matriarch of Domaine Tempier. As mentioned California is doing some thrilling Rosé wines and this one is a standout. Sadly, I understand that the Sileto family have called it quits on this vineyard, with some exotic and rare varietals now getting the axe, but Nio has found another few vineyards from which to get Pfeffer, so we hope there with continue to be wines like this.
($25 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive