As a lot of the Johnny-come-latelies who have recently joined the Rose market are finding out, it’s easy to make a pink wine but it’s a heckuva lot harder to make a good one! This, alas, has become readily apparent as everyone who has sampled some of these new (and often expensive) entrants to the market. My advice is to stick to those who understand the challenges of creating a beautifully nuanced, elegant, dry Rose and have a track record of proving it. One of the true missionaries in the world of dry pink wines is Arnot-Roberts. We’ve been buying their sumptuous, delicious California Rose for over a decade now and it never fails to please. And, like the first robin we spy on the lawn each year, the arrival of their Rose is an early harbinger of spring as it’s usually the very first one from the previous year’s harvest. Their approach is unique, as Arnot-Roberts has long championed the traditional grapes of Port- Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cao to produce this wine. They comb the state in search of the best examples of these dark, expressive, sun-loving grapes and then farm them expressly to be harvested early enough to preserve their bright natural acidity. Keep it cool, keep it clean and add a dash of Grenache for a bit of texture and fruit and you get a really quite serious and thoroughly lovely example of dry Rose, one of America’s best. An intriguing pale pink with a coppery tinge (that would be the Tinta Cao speaking), it’s unbelievably fresh and snappy right now, but we know that with a little bit of time- maybe just about the time we start regularly hitting our backyards for summertime dining, this bone-dry, ultra-food friendly pink wine will be just hitting its stride. It’s a polished bottle of Rose whose elegant fruit and mineral finish makes any food pairing just that more dynamic. ***+ Arugulas and ** Hammocks on PRIMA’s scientific Rose scale