2009 Stepping Stone Corallina Rosé – Red Hills Lake County, California

This intriguing rosé started with three days skin contact, followed by a very slow three-month fermentation. Progression on the palate is fascinating, as if the wine changed from white to red from attack to finish. It opens with a great acid streak and the tiniest fleeting hint of barely ripe peach before immediately switching to the red flavors. It starts lightly with strawberries, faint at first then growing, getting sweeter and darker, evolving into cherries, which linger. I drank this the day after it was bottled, in a courtesy tasting with General Manager, Craig Camp, and the new full-time winemaker, Jeff Keene. Once the wine recovers from the beating it took it will only get better.

WHO: Cornerstone Cellars
WHAT: Grenache, Syrah
WHERE: Red Hills Lake County, California
WHEN: 2009
HOW MUCH: $16