The Cellar: Delicious Spring Sippers

Friday, May 27, 2016

Steffen Rasch, GoLocalWorcester Wine Writer

The warm weather has truly arrived and with that plenty of excuses to drink chilled and refreshing wine. Among my favorite wines to drink in the pre-summer sun are Rosés; bubbles (obviously) as well as still Rosés, a category which is experiencing a huge boost in popularity in recent years.

This week's featured sparkling Rosé is a Cava from Penedes, Spain. Vilarnau Winery, which dates back to 1949 and is located in the heart if Catalonia (Cava Country), makes a series of fantastic Cavas. They make their wines from Estate grown grapes, as well as from grapes sourced from local growers with whom they have long-term contracts. Their Brut Rosé is made from a blend of 85% Trepat and 15% Pinot Noir. The Trepat grape is indigenous to northeastern Spain and the main ingredient in many of the region's Rosé Cavas providing plenty of fresh red berry flavored fruit and enough acidity to make quality sparkling wines.

Cavas has to be made in accordance to the 'traditional’ sparkling wine method which means that the second fermentation, the fermentation that gives the wine the bubbles, has to take place inside the bottle. In making this wine the Trepat and Pinot juice macerated (soaked) with their skins for approximately 4 hours extracting color, flavor and aromas. After pressing off and an initial fermentation (which made the base wine), the wine then underwent the before mentioned secondary fermentation inside the bottle (6 weeks) before allowing to age for over 15 months on the lees. The resulting wine is absolutely delicious; a great frothy wine with bright red fruits. Yet the lingering herbal finish gives its roots away. Flavors of fennel, star anise and celery come to mind.

This week's second wine is a still Rosé from South Africa, a country whose wine industry continues to grow. In the past year, South African wine imports to the US have grown by 6% with Rosés accounting for about half of that increase.

The wine, The Seven Sisters Rose is made by a wine company with such a cool story that I had to feature it. The people behind the brand are in fact biological sisters from the fishing village of Paternoster, South Africa. According to their website, 'The Brutus sisters, along with their baby brother John, had to leave their home when the family was evicted after their father lost his job of over 20 years with a local fishing company. Now, 25 years later, their wine brand Seven Sisters launched in 2007 was a way to change their destiny.' Pretty cool, huh?

The wine is a blend made primarily with the Muscat De Alexandria grape, a white grape variety best known for its floral aromatics and lusciously sweet flavors. A splash of South Africa’s famous Pinotage gives the wine its Rosé color along with some savory red fruit flavors which takes the top off this semi-sweet wine. And while this wine is on the sweeter side, every sip finishes with a healthy dose of acidity leaving the palate refreshed and ready for another one. Oh, and sipping on this wine on a hot balmy day (like today - Wednesday) while nibbling on strawberries is quite delicious by the way.

Cheers,

Steffen Rasch is a Certified Sommelier and Specialist of Wine. Follow him on Twitter at @SteffenRasch or learn about wine in person by signing up for one of his tastings at the Providence Wine Academy.

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