Wine Club: Rosé Spectacular!
July brings to mind certain colors- red, white, and blue, for example. But another color that is equally crucial to these long summer days and warm nights is undeniably, PINK. In an outpouring of ebulliance and celebration, this July we’re bringing the blush and trying to convince you to drink pink! That’s right, it’s our summertime all-rosé spectacular! Move over fireworks, the real showstoppers have arrived. Fun, flirty, exciting, crushable, and absolutely ideal for this season, rosé absolutely deserves to take center stage. Not sure if you’re ready for the full monty? We’re here to flip the script and make rosé-drinkers out of the lot of you.
(PS. Have questions about rosé? Want to know the full backstory and dispel some rumors? Check out some Crush Pad posts for everything you didn’t know you wanted to know.)
Montemelino Rosato
Our long-time favorite Sabina of Montemelino winery on the banks of Lake Trasimeno in Umbria is back again. We can’t wait for our allocation of 100% direct-press ciliegiolo every year--- it’s both light and crushable while offering a slightly more complex and sophisticated palate than your typical summertime blusher. Onion-skin light, just barely kissed with color, but bursting with notes of tart cherry and melon, this is an incredibly versatile, special wine. Of course, it’s completely independent, small-production, family-owned, and made without additives or preservatives. Italy is the new Provence, ya’ll.
Poderi Cellario ‘É Rosato’
Talk about all-stars, we’re bringing another installation of the “Big E” series from Poderi Cellario. We know Fausto always delivers incredible value, in larger-format and party-ready bottles, that are as bona-fide natural as they are DELICIOUS. Moving from Umbria, north to Piedmonte, we see spontaneously fermented dolcetto and nebbiolo lend their bright red fruit notes, acidity and structure to this rosato. Enjoy the cranberry, herb, and citrus notes of this structured but breezy bottling. Careful, although it’s a full liter of wine, you still might not want to share.
RAW CLUB: Rosé for Grown-Ups
These offerings of terroir-driven, elegant and compelling rosés showcase the diversity and complexity of skin-contact wines, which challenge notions of what rosé can do, while reinforcing their place in the world of fine, age-worthy wines.
Azienda Vitivinicola Guglierame
‘Sciac-tra’’
At the gateway to the Alps, the tiny village of Pornassio holds the keys to tremendous winemaking. Nestled in Liguria, the North-Western region of Italy abutting both France and Piedmonte, the Guglierame family has been tending the native varietals of the land for centuries. The newest winemakers of this ancient family, brothers Agostino and Raffaele along with their sister Elisa, have inherited their historic terraced mountainside vineyards along with tons of tradition. Making wine since 1958, the family specializes in just one grape- the rare Ormeasco. With just 2.5 hectare of land under vine, Gugliarame is the “largest” winemaker in the region in a town with only 130 inhabitants. Everything about this wine is incredibly special; the winemakers planted some of these vines as children, and have grown up with their fruit and tended it with the loving care one would show another family member. They make just two wines, a red and rosato, exclusively from Ormeasco. The Sciac-tra’ rosato, meaning “press and pull” is an elegant and enchanting expression of the grape. As implied, the grapes are pressed and the juice flowing from the skins carries pigment and tannin, which is fermented in stainless steel and cement and bottled in the spring. The winery often ages the wine for a full year before release- surely a sign that this rosato is an age-worthy, well-structured and expressive offering.
Martha Stoumen ‘Nero D’Avola’ Rosato
Hailing from Sicily, the enigmatic and bafflingly delicious grape Nero D’Avola has been lifted from its sun-baked mediterranean home to show what it can do in the equally sun-baked hills of California. In the capable hands of rising natural wine star Martha Stoumen, who sources from the dry-farmed, airy soils of organic Benson Ranch vineyards in Ukiah, Mendocino County. She calls this “vino di una notte” or “one night wine,” referring to a style of pressing and short-macerating the grapes overnight with skins and stems. The lower water content of the grapes gives more intensity to the palate of the wine, lending intensity and minerality while allowing a zippy, bright profile to still shine through. Enjoy the notes of rhubarb, wild strawberry, and river stones. This rosato has the tenacity to be taken seriously as a nearly-red, but the playful crushability to be enjoyed alongside light cheeses and a summertime patio charcuterie board. Nero de California, really.
