This sparkling rosé from Napa lights up daytime drinking
California sunshine helps make this sparkler richer and fruity.
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Great Wine Values
Mumm Napa Brut Rosé Napa County, Calif.
$16.99; 12.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #4652
Sale price through 3/28 — regularly $19.99
Napa Valley is the most famous American wine region and its top wine destination for tourists. This is largely due to its role as ground zero for California’s fine wine revolution in the 1970s, where Robert Mondavi famously built the first winery since the end of the Prohibition era. Napa Valley was formalized as an American Viticultural Area in 1981, covering all but 20% of Napa County, and a sustained focus on wine country tourism has shaped its development into one of the world’s most prestigious wine appellations. Today, Napa Valley is known best for its warm-climate cabernet sauvignon and virtually synonymous with so-called “big red” wines.
However, powerhouse reds are not Napa Valley’s only offerings. Legions of thirsty visitors have attracted international vintners, too, including a few whose wines could not be more different, such as Mumm Napa, a producer of cool-climate sparkling wines. An offshoot of the French Champagne house of G. H. Mumm, this winery sources grapes from the colder fringes of Napa County and harvests their grapes weeks earlier in the season in order to be able to produce its delightful traditional-method bubbly. California sunshine does lead these wines to be a tad richer, more plump and fruity, than the parent company’s sparklers from northern France. However, they are delicious and delightful, as with this affordable non-vintage brut rosé made with pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. It features snappy flavors of fresh raspberries and tart cranberries and a color that resembles pink grapefruit. It is ideal for brunches and daytime drinking, as well as salads, sushi, and other foods served raw or chilled.
Also available at:
Kreston Wine & Spirits in Wilmington — $17.88
https://www.krestonwines.com/
Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del. — $18.97
http://www.totalwine.com/
Joe Canal’s in Bellmawr — $18.99
https://www.joecanalsbellmawr.com/