Silver Mountain Vineyards

Winemaker Tony Craig (winemaker at Savannah-Chanelle and of his own label Sonnet Cellars) makes this wine for his wife, who is a musician, and enjoys the symphony going on here. He, along with Silver Mountain proprietor, Jerold O’Brien, produce this wine under three different labels: Muns Vineyard, Silver Mountain and Sonnet Cellars. The grapes for this wine come from Tondré's Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and Muns Vineyard and Miller Hill, both in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

This Pinot Rose has an amazingly rich and beautiful color from significant skin contact, more typical of a Syrah or Grenache rose. Jerold and Tony de-stem and partially crush the Pinot grapes, then draw off the juice from the must after two days , resulting in a far richer pigmentation and flavor profile than the free-run juice which some use to make Saigneé-style Pinot. This wine has a rich nose of strawberries, cherries and roses, with flavors of watermelon, guava, crisp apples and strawberries. The acidity is good enough to tackle a seafood salad of Ahi tuna with avocado, capers, lemon basil and mayo. And it’s got the stones to deal with a crab salad with major chilli and Russian.

Reviewed October 3, 2007 by Laura Ness.