It's Cabernet Season in the Napa Valley!
This Is Calistoga

A Bloom of Rosés for Your Summer Palate

Summer is a great excuse for stocking up on rosé wines, and Calistoga pours the opulent, yet refreshing flavors of rosé at the following wineries:

August Briggs Winery offers a 2016 rosé made with grapes that include 65% Napa and 35% Sonoma. This rosé offers a medium body, muted pink color, aromas of grapefruit and melon, and a crisp and refreshing taste of tart, white nectarine.

Brian Arden Winery offers a dry, non-vintage sparkling rosé crafted with 50% chardonnay and 50% pinot noir grapes that offer a hint of strawberries and peaches. Drinking this wine will be delightful, but will also benefit others, as proceeds from sales of this bubbly go toward the V Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer. This wine is made in honor of the winemaker’s mother.

Castello di Amorosa shares the Gioia (Italian for “Joy”) with an Italian style rosé pour of bright wild berry and melon flavors.

Clos Pegase Winery​ offers a 2016 rosé that delivers an elegant bouquet of rose petals and perfumed red cherries with faint wisps of exotic Turkish delight. In the glass, exhilarating and intense flavors of red raspberries, strawberries, and a hint of wild vanilla pods splash onto the palate. The bright and vibrant acidity, with just a touch of tannin, provides a long lasting finish. This rosé is built for pure refreshment and enjoyment – perfect for a summer al fresco, or as a refreshing aperitif. Serve chilled.

Envy​ Wines offers a slightly sweet Day Rosé that displays delicate aromas of peach, nectarine and rose petals. Soft and caressing on the palate, with a heady summertime texture, this wine suits warm days on the veranda. The fruit flavors come through in layers of strawberry, peach and sweet mango. The finish is touched with some delicate pinot noir. Envy also offers a completely dry Night Rosé with subtle blood orange and hibiscus tea aromas that give way to complex savory flavors reminiscent of Campari on the rocks, with a twist.

Fairwinds Estate Winery pours a cellar blend that is perfectly light with fruit flavors with refreshing acidity and floral notes. This fragrant Rosé suggests fresh strawberry notes upfront, with rose and lavender aromas also found on the palette.

Huge Bear​ Wines showcases a 2016 rosé of cabernet sauvignon made in the traditional method of saignée, which is to obtain the juice by stacking grapes in a tank until they are crushed by the grapes actual weight. This is a dry, light, crisp and easy-to-drink wine.

Jericho Canyon​ Vineyard’s Bordeaux blend rosé is soft as summer with fruits to match, such as watermelon.

Laura Michael Wines showcases a 2016 Michael’s Muse Dry Rosè of Zinfandel ($19/bottle). This delightful dry rosé is made from the Estate zinfandel produced at the winery in Calistoga. With a delicate, salmon pink hue and a touch of raspberry on the nose, the light style makes a perfect complement to the beach, pool or boat! You might pick up the hint of pomegranate on the palate too! Very low in alcohol, this wine is easy to drink and share with friends and family.

Maldonado Family Vineyards ​makes a rosé from 100% pinot noir grapes. Its enticing aromatics of nectarine and soft cherry linger in the glass. Its taste is light and clean with flavors of crisp watermelon, stone-fruit, quince, and citrus.

Picayune Cellars offers a 2016 rosé with a fresh burst of melon and peach. This is a bright wine to drink on its own or pair with a salad or grilled dish.

Romeo​ Vineyards & Cellars makes a 2015 rosé from petit verdot grapes. Aromas of strawberry, raspberry and cherry dominate, with undertones of mocha and caramel.

Schramsberg Vineyards offers 3 sparkling rosés, but we will focus on the 2014 Brut Rosé, a flavorful, complex and dry option, making it both versatile with food and delicious by itself as an apéritif. The character of this wine is most strongly influenced by a selection of bright, flavorful pinot noir grapes. A few small lots of pinot noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth and subtle color to this unique sparkling wine. Chardonnay gives spice, structure and length on the palate.

Tamber Bey Vineyards produces a true grenache, syrah and mourvedre (GSM) rosé from the Red Hills Lake County Appellation. This elegant rosé is sure to please your taste buds and keep you cool all summer.

Tedeschi Family Winery offers a 2015 rosé with a bouquet with notes of red apple and orchid that opens to vibrant flavors of watermelon, strawberry and peach in a mouthfeel that mingles with minerality on the palate.

We’d love to hear which Calistoga rosé wines you’ve tasted and which are your favorites. Please share your comments via social media with hashtag #CalistogaRose.

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

NOTE: This blog was compiled by Calistoga Welcome Center Ambassador Hailey Sedigh.