INSIDER'S PICK: 2019 MASSIMILIANO CALABRETTA ROSATO TERRE SICILIANO $20.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We are also doing both a white and a red option each week, with the white wine available for the discount on Thursday and Friday, while the red wine available on Friday and Saturday. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

Many people view Rose wines as only good for a 'season', and like white pants after Labor Day just won't have them once that theoretical end date has passed. To help remind everyone that these wines are great to have all year round if you enjoy them, and are actually quite valuable to have around Thanksgiving and the holidays, we are going to have a double feature of Roses for this week's picks. To stay with the white/red theme we've been doing, this one is the darker colored of the two. For fans of the 'newly discovered' wines from Mount Etna in Sicily, Massimiliano Calabretta is a modern throwback, tantamount to new old stock if you are into vintage vehicles or bicycles. Access to old vineyards in the heart of the lava fields, organic since the start, and with a traditional mindset about production. Nothing has changed about what he does, even in the face of recent recognition and acceptance of more modern styles. This Rose is from his most used varietal, Nerello Mascalese, which often has a Nebbiolo-like aspect of fruit and higher acidity, and carries through into this wine beautifully. A deeper ruddy color from soaking on the skins a bit longer, with a nose full of savory red fruits and a little touch of the dusty funk from using naive yeasts. Not a full-on 'natural' wine profile, but a nod in that direction in aromas. On the palate the natural acidity and volcanic minerality really pops the drier raspberry and smoky cherry fruits, also bringing in some notes of citrus on the finish, almost orange-y. Plenty of substance for a Rose, making a nice match for antipasto or lightly marinated red meat dishes.

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