Summer Rosato
Three rosato wines to consider for a warm afternoon this summer: The first, coming from Sicily’s Mount Etna, is an intensely fragrant wine made from a mostly Nerello Mascalese grapes. It pale onion-skin like color should not fool you, for its palate is packed with aroma and flavor harvested from Europe’s tallest, and certainly most active, volcano. Statella is a family-run organization from one of the superstar Oenologists in the area, Calogero Statella and he has made one juicy rosato here. Next up, we head to Tuscany for a Sangiovese-based rosé from just outside of Pisa. Nebbiolo savant Giorgio Rivetti of La Spinetta has taken up residence in Tuscany for this project focusing on pure Sangiovese wines. I love how Rivetti coaxes out Sangiovese’s spicy character and tomato-y qualities for this lively rosato. A little more serious on the palate, Casanova is great for summer veg and pasta. To finish, we take a trip outside Italy to Provence, France for one of the worlds most distinct rosé wines. Clos Cibonne is an historic estate who works exclusively with the rare grape Tibouren. In this ‘Vignettes’ bottling they introduce a light fluerette (think fino sherry) to the equation, making this wine a complex and full-bodied rose. A truly remarkable wine, it will surprise you with a balanced expression of autumn citrus, salinity and spice.
