A Seven Stones Hit Rosé

With the possibility of summer weather actually kicking in, I find it's good to have a few rosé wines hanging around - especially when Boo's roasted a chicken and used some of the garden's remaining rhubarb and strawberries to make a compote. Rosé wines still seem to be a poor cousin in the wine world - at least in North America. That may result from the poor rap that is associated with the style because of the hey-day of White Zinfandel in the past. But any guy secure enough to man up to enjoying rosé wine can tell you that you can find as many different rosé styles and taste profiles as you can find wineries that make them.

Austere to off-dry, light salmon or brilliant pink in colour and made from any number of single varietals to blends, what you can find in your glass can often be quite an unexpected surprise.

This wine was one of those surprises. And a pleasant, if unexpected, one at that.

870. 2009 Seven Stones - Speaking Rock Pinot Rosé (Similkameen Valley - BC)

We picked this bottle up last summer when we passed by the Seven Stones winery while driving through the Similkameen Valley on our way back from the Kootenays. We must have liked it enough to buy some when we tried it at the winery's tasting bar, but, to be honest, I'd completely forgotten about it.

The label notes that owner/winemaker George Hanson has gone for a style reminiscent of Provence and the South of France. He might want to revise that and proclaim that he's captured the Southern Similkameen. We enjoyed the bright acidity and minerality that helped make the wine so refreshing. I'm hardly ever one to wax on the prominence of a particular fruit on the nose or the palate but, in this case, it was like the wine had just been blending with strawberries and rhubarb. Those fruits just jumped out of the glass and onto the tongue.

It was a perfect match to dinner and we were disappointed with how quickly the bottle disappeared. Too bad they only made 200 cases. It's one I'd eagerly reach for again.