Domaine André Berthet-Rayne
Rosé M&A Côtes du Rhône Villages

Long days and fresh produce beg you to pour a glass of rosé and savor the summertime.  Dry rosé is one of the fastest growing segments of the fine wine business and when you realize how friendly, satisfying and approachable French rosé can be, you’re broadening your horizons in the most wonderful way.

Fifth-generation winemaker André, along with wife Marina, make the extraordinary M&A Rosé from traditional Côtes du Rhône varieties Syrah, Cinsault, and Grenache.  The result is a wine that’s a brilliant pink-salmon in color and full of red raspberry, pineapple, and a hint of zingy citrus.

What makes rosé so ideal for warm weather?  Served chilled, it’s a refreshing complement to cuisine that shows off summer produce.  Lovely with salads and grilled vegetables, the M&A Rosé is also sturdy enough to stand up to grilled chicken, salmon, and pork.  Rosés can even be served straight through to dessert, as they’re delightful with summer berries and soft cheeses.

Fresh rosé is the perfect seasonal addition to a wine list, offering regular wine drinkers a sip of something new.  With flavors that suit all the world’s cuisines, there may be no more versatile choice than M&A Rosé.

From aperitif to world-class food pairings and a refreshing after-dinner sip, rosé is a shade of pink that suits everyone and every occasion.

How much difference does vintage make?

If you’re in sunny California and making wines blended to taste exactly the same year after year, then vintage isn’t all that important.

But what if you’re in Piedmont?  What if you’re the fifth generation to make wines on a modest little farm nestled in the rolling hills famed for the elegant and rustic wines made from the noble Nebbiolo grape?  Your weather is guaranteed to vary from year to year, and your philosophy is to make wine that reflects what Mother Nature gave you.  In that case, vintage matters a lot.

Azienda Agricola Stra is just that sort of winery.  For five generations, they’ve consistently made wines that are a unique, genuine expression of Piedmont, wines that are both subtle and powerful, nuanced and sturdy.

Mother Nature can be fickle, and the 2013 vintage certainly didn’t start out to be an easy one for Piemontese growers.  Winter felt like it lasted forever, and the spring was both exceptionally cold and exceptionally wet.  Budbreak was delayed by roughly two weeks throughout the region.  Even the summer was fairly cool, though August and September had plenty of sunshine and decent swings between daytime high temperatures and nighttime lows.

It all came down to October.  Though some estates saw early October rains, which can cause berries to swell and even burst, estates like Stra managed to let the Nebbiolo grapes hang long enough to ripen before a harvest that was much later than usual.

The result?  2013 is an exceptional, classic vintage, and the Stra Langhe Nebbiolo 2013 is a shining example.  Its vivid ruby color, fruit-forward nose that’s redolent of mulberries, roses, and licorice, and fine-grained tannins work together in a wine that’s an exquisite expression of an excellent vintage.  Drink it up while you can.

Alfredo: A Prosecco Full of Life

The people behind the Theresa Eccher winery consider their wines to be an expression of beauty, passion, life and culture. Theresa Eccher’s journey began with Andrea Panozzo – a known Italian journalist and writer – and his wife Daniela, who happened to come from a family of winemakers originating from the Non valley in Northern region of Trentino (Val di Non Italia). Theresa Eccher is named after the noble matriarch of Daniela’s family. However, both Daniela and Andrea are rooted in the wine tradition of their families, while also being some-what story tellers and opera enthusiasts.

Among their excellent wines, we found their Prosecco Treviso D.O.C. at the same time impressive and intriguing.

As wine is an expression of passion and life, the name of this prosecco “Alfredo” interestingly enough is derived from the famous aria in Verdi‘s La traviata “Libiam”.

The aria is sung by Alfredo, with his love Violetta, and is known for their chanting the words: Let’s drink, let’s drink from the joyous chalices that beauty so truly enhances. This is to remind us that prosecco has its roots in the days of the Venetian aristocracy in Veneto. This prosecco in particular “Alfredo”, with its intense aro­mas and rich com­plex­ity in taste, exudes beauty, in the same way Verdi’s aria intended.

This prosecco is dry, fresh with an amazing aro­matic per­sis­tence and fruitiness at the end, it’s full of life.

Let’s drink!