Rosé season is practically here (some would say it’s always time for rosé). Spring brings out so many pretty bottles of pink wine. I love Spring! While much of the country is under a cold spell, in Arizona, we are sunny and almost 80°F. This calls for opening up the Miloš Stagnum Rosé.
The 2016 Miloš Stagnum Rosé is $26.95 & sunshine in a bottle. So darn good!
Estate bottled by Frano Miloš, this Croatian dry rosé is made of 100% Plavac Mali grapes. From the bottle:
“Our family farms one grape (Plavac Mali) in one place (Ponikve). A nearly impassible terraced limestone amphitheatre. Stagnum rosé is obtained from the oldest ungrafted head pruned plots. Workable only by hand, this is an expression of us and our beloved home. Dry, structured and savory, it has the freshness and power of the wind and sea.”
Unique Flavors! I Must Travel To Croatia To Smell All The Plants & Sea Air.
My first sip quickly lead to another, just to get a grasp on what I was tasting… a round, full-body of fresh red fruit; cherry, hint of watermelon, and whatever grows wild on the peninsula. The overall balance was palate pleasing, no overwhelming acidity or tannins, not even too dry.
The Pelješac region is known for the gorgeous, steep vineyards overlooking the Adriatic Sea and is host to over 1,000 plant species. I like to imagine gentle, helpful zephyrs from the sea, dancing across the plavac mali vines, carrying & sprinkling all of the natural yeasts while the happy grapes, almost giddy with excitement, wait to find out whether they’ll be created into a full-bodied red, rosé, or sweet dessert wine…
This glass of rosé even looks happy, doesn’t it?
A Few Facts About Plavac Mali:
- It’s pronounced “plah-vahts mah-lee”
- It’s a red wine grape. A cross between Tribidrag and Dobričić grapes. Zinfandel (called Primitivo in Italy) is the same as Tribidrag (also called Crljenak Kaštelanski=the original/ancient Zinfandel). Some say if you like a full-bodied Zinfandel (not white Zin!), you’ll like Plavac Mali. They’re both red wine grapes, but oh so wonderfully different.
- Plavac Mali means “little blue” (plavo =blue; mali = small) in Croatia, where it’s the most widely grown grape.
If you’d like to try this unique Miloš rosé or any other interesting Plavac Mali wines, I highly recommend reaching out to the kind, Blue Danube Wine Co. Thanks to them, I’m a fan of Frano Miloš wines and would love to see this producer in local shops. If you want to read/learn more about Croatia/Croatian wine, Exotic Wine Travel’s book, Cracking Croatian Wine, is full of interesting facts!
