Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/960891
62 / the tasting panel / april 2018 REPORT Ré Diane Denham: I noticed there's a smaller percentage of Santa Barbara fruit in the rosé than in the other wines. MS: Santa Barbara fruit can be darker, and we wanted more restraint in the rosé. The Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara is beautiful but brooding, and we wanted more watermelon and bright cherry flavors. We like to maximize the components to pull from as we're putting the blends together, so the tri-county origins are the most important thing. That gives us a large palette to work with. When you think about the Pinot, it's really dense and rich, and the idea of making a rosé like that isn't very appealing. We're going more toward a Provençal style with bright acidity: a wine that's mouthwa- tering and a little coy. With the coastal fruit, you can get that. DD: The 2016 was the limited first release, and 2017 will be the first vintage that Meiomi Rosé will be in broad distribution. How was the 2017 vintage for you? MS: The 2017 vintage was challenging but ultimately really rewarding. All the fruit was in before the wildfires, but the intense heat spike that occurred around Labor Day quickened ripening and was followed by rain a few weeks later. We had to make some quick decisions, but we ended up with beautifully ripe fruit and great acidity, which have turned into wines we're really excited about. DD: So much for the even vintage varia- tion California is famous for! MS: (laughs) Everyone thinks California vintages are so predictable, and that's so not true. There's a lot of vintage variation in California. The 2017 vintage was no exception, but I feel really good about the wines. DD: What do you like to pair with the rosé at home? MS: I always think of rosé as a lunch wine. I love it with seafood salads, and when I was in Florida recently, we had it with spicy tuna. We also tried it with a smoky asparagus dish with a chutney on top. With asparagus, pairing can be tricky, but it's all in how it's prepared. I always tell people that some food and wine pairings can be surprising. Oftentimes how a food is prepared can either help or hinder the actual pairing. DD: Any final thoughts? MS: We had so much fun making the Meiomi Rosé. People may have expected us to make a robust, rounded rosé to mirror our Pinot Noir, but while all Meiomi wines reflect their coastal origin, I think each wine should be the best version of its own style, and rosé just begs to be the light, crisp go-to on a hot day. Melissa Stackhouse embraced the idea of adding a predominantly–Pinot Noir rosé to the Meiomi portfolio. "It just felt right," she told The Tasting Panel.