Winemaker Rosemary Cakebread blends her organically-grown estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah into this sculptural rosé. The fruit was direct pressed and fermented in a mix of stainless steel and used oak barrels, and malolactic was suppressed. The resulting salmon-hued wine is fragrant of strawberries and roses, with a streak of wet rocks. It is a mouthful of honeydew melon and red citrus, but the wine retains its length and elegance, its fruit gilded by firm acidity.
Truly a flexible wine, it’s good with fried snacks, mixed cheeses, and lightly cooked foods of all stripes, from fish to poultry to pork. It’s also an equitable partner for salads, especially those with heft and an edge of vegetable sweetness: think corn or tomato, blanched new potatoes, the aïoli platter.
2019 Gallica Estate Rosé St. Helena
13% abv | $28 (sample)
