2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle Nellie's Garden Dry Rosé

The other day at Wolfchase I was delighted to stumble upon the 2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle Nellie's Garden Dry Rosé from the Columbia Valley of Washington. I didn't know that Ste. Michelle made a rosé, and it appears as though this one was previously available only to members of their wine club.

Wow. Such a delicate fruit aroma, and this will sound odd but it's the best way I can describe it: when I was a kid we'd sometimes take 7-up and add a splash of juice from a jar of Maraschino cherries. Sort of an ersatz Shirley Temple*, but when I was six I didn't know any German, only bits of French and Latin from singing in the Memphis Symphony Boys Choir. Anyway, when you sniffed the beverage there was only a hint of cherry aroma. Most of it showed up when drinking it.

It's got a bigger body than you'd expect from the nose. Touch of that fizzy acidity you get in some rosés, spice and a flash of heat. This wine begs for some Indian or Thai food. It's 96% Syrah with splashes of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Viognier. The peppery Syrah characteristics come through particularly well.

*The other cocktail of the childhood years was the "Suicide", made by combining various carbonated beverages from a soda fountain. Typically I enjoyed some combination of Coke/Sprite/Root Beer, but the more daring would all six selections together, including things like lemonade or Hawaiian Punch. Personally I never thought that orange soda mixed well with anything else. Two decades later I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how different types of grape juice are blended.