We love this wine! We liked it when we tasted it in the tasting room, and love it now that we are tasting it again with food.

It’s fantastic with our gorgonzola cranberry and pecan torte: the creamy flavors go beautifully with this wine. At a family gathering this would be a wonderful wine to take.  Take it to your next Easter or Thanksgiving gathering. It went well with our great basin nuts, telling us that this wine goes well with rosemary flavors as well. It is a conversational wine that pairs beautiful and would compliment a special meal. This is a meal wine, it loves a big meal to compliment it and can carry across many flavor profiles. This wine went well with our shrimp fritters, but the others were seriously transformed by the shrimp fritters.

With our dessert of strawberries, blueberries, and sauce of sour creme, lemon juice, honey and lavender, and hazelnut cookie, this wine went better with the cookie than the fruit.

Visit Sculpterra winery, if not for the wine then for the eye candy including a fantastic full sized kaleidoscope.

WINERY says: “This amazing Rosé shows depth in strawberry, raspberry and fresh, ripe, tropical fruits. Syrah gives the wine its jewel-like darker hue, adding notes of crushed herbs, roses, and hints of ripe melon. The Mourvèdre was so unique, loaded with guava, tangerine, and an orange zest tang, I almost wanted to bottle it on its own.”

I purchased this wine with an industry discount.

2016 – Hearst Ranch Winery – $22 – alcohol 14.2%
42% petite verdot, 24% petite syrah, 23% syrah, 11% tempranillo

Named after Julia Morgan, who partnered William Hearst as the architect to bring his dreams to fruition, this wine honors her in a very elegant subtle way. Pale pink in color with an elegant nose, this rose of  GSM is all about subtlety. It’s not overly fruity, or overly floral but does offer cling peach and kernel on the nose. The palate is also subtle, with a clean finish and some roundness, a very interesting blend that is definitely on the dry side.

However, where the wine really shines is like food. Much like Hearst needed the guidance an th partnership of Julia Morgan to make his dreams into reality, this wine shows the best when paired with food.

This wine LOVES food!

We liked the rosemary notes of the pecans, and we felt that maybe if the rosemary notes went through to our dessert it would work. The lavender was intriguing, however once we added in the rosemary, it has elevated this pairing beyond comprehension. The herbal qualities brought out wonders in this wine — brings out a really amazing minerality. Think butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce.

WINERY says: “Our primary goal when blending rosé is to make it delicious! To us, rosé should be bright, playful and above all else, approachable.  Chill this wine 50˚ and take a moment to gaze upon the beautiful pink hue while in your glass.”

I purchased this wine with an industry discount.

Plan B Cellars Rose of Mourvedre  

What is not to love about a refillable container?

Fill, chill, kill, refill! That’s the mantra a Plan B when it comes to growlers.

This wine is a fresh food product. Like a growler of beer, your growler of wine should be kept refrigerated and opened within a month or two. Once opened, you should drink it within a few days. (I learned my lesson the hard way!)

In color, it is a robust salmon, very orangey-pink. (If you ask Drew, it is not going to Pavlovian pink.) Instead, this is a rather sophisticated and intriguing color.

On the nose, we find citrus, in particular tangerine with some sage- mint qualities along with wet earth and white bentonite clay and fresh apricot skin. On the palate, it has more refreshing tangerine with an engaging roundness mid-palate and a clean yet lingering finish of apricot kernel. Somewhere there’s a hint of almond.

While I definitely enjoyed it with the shrimp cake, the real winner here in terms of pairing was the smoked gouda with canadian bacon.

Where’s my grilled gouda and Canadian bacon sandwich?

However, I could see this as being the best wine ever with a BLT with avocado– especially on toasted bread. I also know that winery staff enjoy it with sushi!

I bought a growler a year ago which I have refilled a few times and purchased with an industry discount.

Wine Pairing Weekend aka #WinePW is a group of bloggers who gather together once a month on the second Saturday to create food and wine pairings around a theme. Then during a twitter chat from 8-9am PST, we discuss the wine and food, our successes and failures. David Crowley started the group in June 2014 and it’s been going strong ever since. The theme for our August Wine Pairing Weekend Chat is Rosé and… because there are endless meal ideas that pair with a Rosé. Next month,  for September 2017, Sue and I are hosting with a theme of Portugal which you can read about here.

• Martin of enofylzwineblog will be recommending Two Easy Summer Meals And Two California Rosés. 
•  Lauren of The Swirling Dervish declares it is Dinner Time and Wine: Three Pairings for Sparkling Rosé. 
•  Jill of L’Occasion will be showing us how to use Rosé and Sea Salt. 
•  Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla will be posting about Kobza Rosé with a Summery Grilled Haloumi Salad. 
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm shares her story, I heard an Angel Whispering in my ear. 
• Gwendolyn of WinePredator proclaims Hooray for Central Coast Rose for #WinePW. 
• David of Cooking Chat is pairing Mediterranean Grilled Chicken with a Bandol Rosé. 
• Ellen of Family Around the Table will make us all drool with her Brown Sugar Pecan Maple Baked Brie. 
• Lori of Dracaena Wines will be pairing Rosé and Thai Grilled Pizza. 
• Cindy of Grape Experiences  knows the KISS rule and will Pair Rosé with…(Keep it Simple) 
• Nancy from Pull That Cork will be Grazing, Rosé in Hand. 
• Jane of Always Ravenous will be discussing A Season of Rosé Paired with Mediterranean Flavors.