Medium salmon-rose color (winery calls it “peach blossom pink”); strawberry, floral nose; raspberry, strawberry, cherry, red grapefruit on the palate.
Extra dry (14-17 g/L), which means hint of sweetness; very fine and persistent perlage (the word Italians use for bubbles, from French word ‘perle’—pearl). Soft, faint flavors; relatively soft acidity; very clean, delicate and easy to drink.
This is part of Mionetto’s Prestige Collection brand of wines. The Italian maker is better known for quality prosecco; Mionetto is the world’s leading Prosecco brand and the number one seller of Prosecco in the U.S. This is not Prosecco, but sparkling wine—spumante in Italian, although that word is not used on the label or website to describe this. It is made from variety of red grapes, not glera. Mionetto also makes a “Grand Rosé” sparkling. Italian spumante has fine and persistent bubbles, as this wine does. Frizzante is the other Italian sparkling description; it has less persistent perlage.
Master winemaker Francesco Mionetto opened his winery in 1887 in Valdobbiadene, the heart of Prosecco country, north of Venice. The winery has been a leader in refining of the charmat method, where secondary fermentation (the one that produces the bubbles) occurs in autoclaves instead of individual bottles. This is different from méthode champenoise, or traditional method, used to make Champagne and other sparkling wines. Both methods produce excellent sparkling wines; charmat is less labor-intensive and allows for less-expensive wine. Prosecco has enjoyed a huge surge in popularity over the past several years; this effort applies the same effort to non-glera based wine (glera is the name of the required white grape in prosecco).
Mionetto Rosé Extra Dry Sparkling Wine NV is beautiful in color, delicate on the palate, faint in flavors, refreshing and easy to drink. $14
