There’s a very good chance you’d be able to find me drinking Rosé any month of the year. My consumption is driven by cuisine and mood, more than weather. But I’m also going to be honest and say that those moods and food choices lend themselves to Rosé more often in warm months. The average wine drinker stops thinking about Rosé when they put their shorts and white pants in the closet and it returns to top of mind right around Memorial Day. So, we’re squarely back in the midst of prime Rosé time for the masses.
All of that to say, I’ll be popping in from time to time during these months with Rosé recommendations. So without further ado, here’s my first of the season.
Planeta Sicilia Rosé DOC 2023 ($21)
Composed of equal parts Syrah and Nero d’Avola, harvested just 2 days apart.
“Food friendly” feels like a loaded and over used wine term. On the one hand, it’s wine, it should be food friendly, hell, it is itself food. But it’s not nearly always the case, or more to the point, the food compatibility of some wines is a very narrow range of foods. So usually when I celebrate the food friendliness of a particular wine, it’s because it’s got the ability to make friends with a lot of food groups. Such is the case here.
The pale hue shimmers in the glass. Strawberry aromas dominate. Apricot, peach and raspberry flavors abound on the palate along with hints of ripe cantaloupe. lively acid runs through and lends to the refreshing and companionable nature of this wine.
I paired this with roasted Cauliflower. I parboiled it in well salted water for 7 minutes. After draining, I spritzed it with olive oil and liberally applied BBQ 3000, a proprietary Spice blend from Penzeys*. Then it went in the air fryer for 30 minutes until I got some nice caramelization. The tiny bit of heat, and myriad other flavors, that the BBQ 3000 brought to the party played wonderfully with the wine.
* I can’t say enough good things about Penzeys. The freshness and quality of their spices is uniformly excellent. On top of that they have lots of inspired proprietary spice blends and many spices you won’t find elsewhere often, or at all.
It's a refreshing gulp of wine with racy acid. Planeta Sicilia 2023 Rosé DOC is certainly delightful all by itself, but will definitely party well with many mild to moderately bold favors. Grab some and let me know what you think.