2017 Healy Rose

Happy Wine Wednesday!  It's been over 80 degrees here for the past two days, so I am officially declaring this the beginning of rose season!  And since the folks at Bledsoe Family Wines were kind enough to deliver 8 bottles of the most recent vintage, what else could I possibly open tonight but a 2017 Healy Rose?  So let's see what this wine has to offer.

The wine is a lovely peach color in the glass as the nose presents sweet aromas of strawberry, orange zest, cantaloupe and honeydew and floral overtones that just make this wine feel like a spring day.  The taste is crisp and refreshing on the tongue, with wonderful sweet fruit flavors dancing together before some wonderful mineral notes join the party.  The finish is lingering yet crisp, just what you'd want from a nice spring day.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5 as this wine is becoming a perennial favorite to start rose season.  This wine would pair perfectly with a sunny afternoon on the patio, but tonight since we're having a thunderstorm (another side effect of warm humid weather), I am enjoying this wine with some sesame seared ahi tuna, steamed rice and sauteed baby bok choy.  Cheers!

2010 Mazzei Tenuta Belguardo Maremma Toscana Rose

So summer is starting to wind down a bit, at least it's been a little cooler over the last few days, and I was planning to have some seafood for dinner, so what better way to enjoy a nice Rose?  After all, roses have been such hot commodities this summer, 2012 has practically turned into the summer of rose!  So tonight I opened a nicely chilled bottle of 2010 Mazzei Tenuta Belguardo Maremma Toscana Rose, say that three times fast!

This wine is a lovely rose made from half Sangiovese and half Syrah that displays a lovely pinkish orange hue in the glass.  The nose is a variety of fresh strawberry, citrus and fresh grass.  The taste is remarkably dry, with barely a hint of sweet fruit, such that you might think you were drinking the red version had it not been for the color and temperature!  The taste is wonderfully bright and crisp, with flavors of orange and pear, with a short, but firm finish.

Tonight I paired this wine with perhaps the perfect dinner, starting with a fresh arugula salad with Tuscan spiced olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then some pan seared sea scallops and rigatoni with fresh pesto made with basil I picked this afternoon.  The dryness of the wine really offset the sharpness of the balsamic in the salad, but it also complemented the richness of the scallops and really set off the freshness of the pesto.  Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7, particularly at the price point - I bought this one for $9 from Wines Till Sold Out!  So enjoy the late summer with a wonderful rose like this one, you'll be glad you did once the cool Fall weather sets in!

2011 L'Ecole No. 41 Grenache Rose

So tonight is another one of those hot summer evenings that we've been having lately, where you really just want to hide in the air conditioning, hoping for cooler days!  Well, at least it's still Sunday, and that means Sunday dinner and a wonderful wine to accompany it!

So tonight I've decided to go retro with my Sunday dinner and make Seafood Newburg, a wonderful dish with a heavy cream sauce with lots of sherry (we never seem to cook with sherry anymore, what a shame), shallots and paprika along with scallops and shrimp, tossed in linguine (I went non traditional tonight as I couldn't bring myself to light the oven and make the puff pastries!).  So, what better wine to enjoy with my evening meal than a lovely rose, and tonight's comes from my all time favorite winery, L'Ecole No. 41 of Walla Walla.

The wine itself it s a lovely pink hue in the glass with lovely aromas of citrus, green apple and rose petals.  The taste is marvelous, with some sweet berry fruit at the outset, giving way to some spice and orange midpalate.  The tannins are very subdued, leading to a long, somewhat gravelly finish that is simply superb.

Now for any of you who have read my blog, you know that I am mainly a red wine sort of guy, but I've been enjoying some roses in the heat of this awful summer.  This is by far my favorite rose of all that I've sampled, as it is fresh, crisp, dry and speaks to what a traditional Grenache should be.  Overall, I would rate this one a solid 8.5, and by rights it should be a 9 but I can't bring myself to give a rating that high for a non-red wine!  In any case, it's a wonderful wine, that I'd be happy to sip all evening as the sun sets and the temperature finally gets back below 90!  Unfortunately it's now sold out at the winery, which I guess you could expect with only 190 cases produced, but I still have a few bottles of the 2011, as well as the 2009 and 2010 to enjoy, so if you can find this one, jump on it!