Stag's Hollow Rosé

Think Rosé is only for hot weather and sunny patio? Not me.

While I won't argue that summertime and pink go hand in hand, man, I'm up for a good Rosé at any time of year. Of course, I'm not talking the sweet White Zinfandels of yore. Rather, I'm hoping for a wine that straddles the bright acidity of a white while boasting the bigger profile of a food-friendly red. You know, a little something to address the winter blues.

1480.  2012 Stag's Hollow Syrah Rosé (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Our Stag's Hollow bottle managed to do just that and it happened to win a Silver medal at the 2013 All Canadian Wine Awards along the way.

With our province's Northern location and no guarantee that some of the bigger red varieties will fully ripen every vintage, we can see a number of BC wineries using the saignée method that sees juice being "bled" from the pressed grapes in order to make a heartier red wine from the juice left on skins. The juice that is "bled" off has minimal contact with those crushed skins and, as a result, doesn't pick up much colour - leading to a Rosé wine.

That's not the method that Stag's Hollow has used with their Syrah Rosé though. The wine was produced from grapes that were grown specifically for this Rosé. According to the winery's spec sheet on the wine, some of the grapes were whole cluster pressed while the remaining grapes saw some skin contact as the juice was transferred to tank before being pressed off.

In a bit of a rare move, the wine is 97% Syrah - a variety not regularly used for Rosé wines in BC. Winemaker, Dwight Sick, has added to the uniqueness of his wine by blending in small percentages of Orange Muscat and Viognier (2% and 1% respectively) to add to the aromatics and fruit profile. While there's definite fruit shining through on the palate - particularly strawberry - that fruit is not to be confused with this being an off-dry wine. The wine might not be as austere as many Provençal Rosés, but it still offers up a bright acidity to match up nicely to any number of dishes.

Too bad there was only 400 cases produced.

I'm certainly glad to see more and more of Rosé being made in BC. That fact and an increased presence of Rosé wines from other countries makes me a happy Bob - especially when they hit the mark like this one does.