I bottled both the Cellar Craft 2010 limited edition Marsanne-Viognier-Roussanne and the Winexpert Spanish Rose today, getting ready for summer sipping.  The MVR wasn’t quite clear, which I think might be due to my use of marbles for topping up my wines.  When wines with marbles are moved at all from their place of rest to the racking table, it seems to disturb the fine lees to a point that they never settle back in and clear out.  It hasn’t happened with every wine, but seems to happen a lot; or, I just happen to need marbles in wines that won’t clear very well anyway.  Either way, I ended up filtering the MVR with my Buon Vino minijet filter and a #2 polishing pad, and since I had it all set up I filtered the rose after the MVR also.  As usual, there were partial bottles of both at the end of the day, so I tasted these.

Tasting notes for the Marsanne-Viognier-Roussane:  Huge aromas of fresh apple, peach, and apricot. This wine was filtered, so very clear, pale gold in color. Actually very drinkable today, very balanced, with flavors of crisp red apple, melon, peach and citrus. Long, luscious, mouth-filling finish. Definitely more integrated already than the 2009 version of this limited release.

Tasting notes for the Spanish Rose:  Bottling day tasting note from partial bottle. Very faint nose, barely any aromas. This wine was filtered, so very clear, lovely rose color. Flavors of strawberry and guava with light spice, though very closed up.  It did open up later in the evening, so I’m very much looking forward to having this wine around for summer cookouts and sunsets.