I want my rosé refreshing, affordable, easy to enjoy with or without food, low-to-moderate in alcohol and delicious even when well-chilled. The 2017 St. Amant Barbera Rosé checks all those boxes with a fruity flourish. It’s a very good wine that’s complex, not complicated, and has willpower-challenging gulpability.

St. Amant, one of the first wineries in Lodi’s modern era, has been making Barbera from the Leventini Vineyard since 1998. The sandy-soiled, Jahant AVA site has been planted to grapes for 46 years now. In the beginning, St. Amant made only conventional, red Barbera. Rosé joined their lineup in 2010, thank goodness.

This wine is made in a Saignée style, with juice of fully ripened, crushed and destemmed grapes absorbing color and flavor from the skins for 48 hours. The juice is then separated from the grape solids and fermented in neutral oak barrels. After fermentation, the wine mingles with the lees for another ten days. After racking, it ages three more months in neutral oak. This treatment lends weight and roundness to the palate, but no appreciable tannins or oak-derived flavors, and the fruit remains fresh.

Interesting tidbit: Stuart Spencer, St. Amant’s longtime winemaker and second-generation owner, was appointed Director of the  Lodi Winegrape Commission in April of this year.

2017 St. Amant Barbera Rosé Lodi 88 13.1% 750ml $15

The appetizing coral red color promises plenty of flavor and this rosé doesn’t disappoint. The nose offers strawberry, cranberry, blood orange and sweet basil. It’s round, but juicy, in the mouth with fine texture and

medium-plus body. Flavors match the nose, especially the strawberry, cranberry and herb, but there are also touches of vanilla and peach. It’s nummy on its own, but will be lovely with a picnic lunch or breakfast on the patio.

Copyright Fred Swan 2018. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy of St. Amant.