The Wine Knows

I've been drinking a lot of rosé this year, and this afternoon I tasted another gorgeous pink wine - this time from a winery I know little about.

During our blind tasting this afternoon of Walla Walla Valley wines, we singled out a Sangiovese-Cabernet Franc rosé produced by Skylite Cellars as something pretty special.

Bob Woehler, our tasting editor and the dean of Washington wine writers, pointed out (before we found out what the wine was) these two varieties make really good rosés in the Northwest. This was shown to be true when our panel gave the Skylite 2005 dry rosé an unanimous Outstanding. The wine retails for $15 and is made by longtime Washington winemaker Robert Smasne.

It's a very exciting time in the Northwest for rosé, and this is another great example.