Are you ready for an autumn rose wine? We’ve featured Calabretta’s deliciously gulpable “Cala Cala” rosso to great customer response. This month we’re delighted to include Calabretta’s organic Rosato, fashioned primarily from ungrafted vines planted on the sandy, rocky slopes of Mount Etna. Calabretta’s rose opens with a gleaming vermilion color and a soaring bouquet of wild cherries, cured meat, cinnamon, and rocky soil. Fresh and lively on the palate, expressions of spicy cherries, red licorice, cloves and allspice mingle with Etna’s spicy, peppery soil signature. Fine, savory, food-friendly tannins emerge on the wine’s back-palate and segue it to a long, appetizing finish that reprises suggestions of cherries, red currants, cinnamon, volcanic earth, and peppery salumi. Along with the Alto Piemonte, Etna is Italy’s hippest wine zone right now: with one sip the freshness, brightness, and balance of this Rosado will show you why. It drinks fantastically well by itself, but shows best with food and will prove a versatile partner to roast poultry, eggplant parmigiana, pastas, pizzas, burgers, pork braises, sashimi, and sushi. Calabretta’s Rosado drinks well now but has the poise, tension, and structure to improve for two or three years.
