Despite what designers of T-shirts and insulated tumblers would have you believe, it’s not actually very fun to “rosé all day.” Trust me–I’ve been there. Having a bottle of the blush stuff on Sunday morning is a good way to ensure that you wake up on a lounge chair with a sunburn and a whanging headache. With mountains of dirty dishes and laundry staring you in the face and Monday only hours away.
But as we grow, we learn. After spending my 20s with White Zinfandel and Aperol-spiked pink wine slushies, I find I still love rosé, but in moderation.
The rosés have grown up, too. No more pale and limpid wine the color of Millennial Pink. While there may be an obligatory bottle of Miraval or Whispering Angel, the wines on the local wine lists these days follow a certain formula: Super-dry, concentrated domestic wines from herb-inflected grapes like Mourvèdre and Pinot Noir.
Ferrari-Carano Dry Sangiovese Rosé is just such a libation. See, it has “dry” right there on the front label. And “Sangiovese.” (My wife claims to not like rosé but is a massive Chianti-head, so I brought this home in a transparent attempt to change her mind.)
In the glass Ferrari-Carano is orange-pink. An almost neon, Tequila Sunrise hue. I brace my palate for strawberry bon bons but no: There’s a lot of stuff going on with this wine.
The aroma is red fruits with some green-ness: Watermelon and strawberry stems. There’s rosehip tea, orange pith and white cranberry, too. The palate adds about half the produce section: Strawberry, tart raspberry, basil, Rainier cherry, red bell pepper. Canned pimento pepper and hint of bruised rose petal, too. My tasting notes for this wine have more question marks than the landing page of Quora…but I’m into it. It’s a tad bit hot for a rosé at 13.9% (!)–and true to the label, very dry.
Other vital stats: Ferrari-Carano makes this wine from Sangiovese (77%) with smaller amounts of Pinot Noir, Black Muscat, Grenache, and Carignan. It’s all Sonoma County grapes, primarily from Alexander Valley. This wine is entirely stainless-steel fermented and bottled in the December following the harvest to keep all those zany aromatics intact.
Ferrari-Carano Dry Sangiovese Rosé is the wine equivalent of a film with an ensemble cast. Everyone’s doing their own bit–hamming it up–and it doesn’t always gel. But just when you’re tired of one personality, there’s another character to capture your attention.
This rosé has guts. I would not hesitate to serve it with almost any midday meal, especially difficult-to-pair brunch foods like veggie frittatas and tangy salads. (It’s not rosé all day, any more–thank you very much. It’s just rosé between the hours of 11 AM and 3 PM.)
If you have the same whim, but don’t feel like cooking, you’re in luck. Ferrari-Carano has a tasting room in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley. They serve an Italian-inspired brunch with wine pairings ($95) on Saturdays and Sundays.
This is a bold and original style of wine that even rosé haters might enjoy. Its cornucopia of fruit and vegetable flavors don’t always add up to a coherent whole–but at least it doesn’t taste like strawberry spa water. It could be just the thing to keep the Sunday scaries away.
Bottle: Ferrari-Carano Dry Sangiovese Rosé (2022)
Variety: Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Grenache, Black Muscat, Carignan
ABV: 13.9%
Suggested retail: $24
My rating: 7.8 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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