"We don’t make a Rose every vintage, only when the component grapes----Merlot and Cabernet Franc—seem especially suited. Our goal with the 2023 Estate Rose was to create an intensely flavorful and deep pink wine which is both fun and substantial. You might find notes of red cherries and rhubarb in the wine, or strawberries, white pepper and white peaches."
Readers, it's time to put on your rose-colored glasses because you want your optical fashion to match your wine glass. With its piercing color, full flavor and delicate acidity, the Smith-Madrone Rosé is 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, and 100 percent what you should be drinking this spring and summer no matter where you are. We love that it is made in the USA of course and this wine is in keeping with their previous forays into the world of pink wine. It's distinctively American straight from one of the pioneers of Napa Valley himself! You'll be totally in the pink sipping this festive winner and it was unanimously loved by all different kinds of palates at Whom You Know.
The Rosé opens with a delightful aroma of strawberries, rhubarb and white pepper, which then rolls over into white peaches and orange blossoms. Obviously, we seek out anything which is evocative of any variety of peach! Therefore it has earned a double feature in the Peachy column or triple in fact because it is Made in the USA.
On the palate, the wine is intensely flavorful and packed with bright red fruit, to a degree unusual in a rosé. It is as though red currants, rhubarb and red cherries all merged into a fourth flavor called Smith-Madrone Rosé. This is a lovely glass of wine with a very high fun quotient that happens to be pink.
Simply put, the wine is just outstanding!
2023 Estate Grown Rosé by Smith-Madrone is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
LOCATION & COORDINATES: 4022 Spring Mountain Road, St. Helena, California 94574
Phone 707/963-2283;
Open by appointment only
Wines available to purchase online.
FOUNDED: 1971, by Stuart Smith
MANAGEMENT: Stuart Smith, Founder, General Partner
Charles F. Smith III, Winemaker
François Bugué, Associate Winemaker
MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS: The vineyards sit at elevations between 1,300 and 2,000 feet, on steep slopes which range up to 34%.
PLANTING: Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon were initially planted in 1972. Cabernet Franc and Merlot were added in 1998. Petite Verdot was added in 2007. Pinot Noir was planted in 1972 but grafted over to Chardonnay in 1986.
ESTATE : All wines made entirely from the winery's dry-farmed estate vineyards surrounding the winery on top of Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley. Stuart Smith chose specific slopes with different exposures for specific varietals when planting the vineyards: eastern exposure for Riesling, southern and western exposures across flat stretches for the Cabernet Sauvignon and the coolest north-facing slopes for the Chardonnay. There are numerous historical sights on the ranch, as well as the huge array of natural beauty and wildlife.
SOIL: The soils are mostly deep-red Aiken Stoney Clay loam, part of the Aiken, Kidd, Forward complex of soils which are volcanic-based, well-drained and deep for mountain soils. The underlying geology is the Franciscan Assemblage, unique to California coastal ranges, which includes altered mafic volcanic rocks, deep-sea radiolarian cherts, sandstones, limestones, serpentines, shales and high-pressure metamorphic rocks, all of them faulted and mixed in a seemingly chaotic manner as a result of tectonic plate activity. The soils are rocky, with some rocks as large as small cars.
FARMING: Smith-Madrone is a pioneer of dry farming; from 2017 forward, the vineyards have been minimally irrigated, if at all. Stu Smith explains in this video.
CURRENT RELEASES:
2023 Estate Rosé (131 cases, $30)
2021 Estate Chardonnay (983 cases, $45)
2021 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (1,652 cases, $65)
2019 Estate Riesling (1,087 cases, $40)
2021 Estate Cabernet Franc (153 cases)
2018 Cook’s Flat Reserve (2300 bottles, individually numbered, wrapped in proprietary tissue, $225)
Occasional availability of re-released library wines
All wines are Spring Mountain District appellation, all wines are estate-grown and estate-bottled.
Occasional availability of re-released library wines.
PRODUCTION: Approximately 3,000-4000 cases a year
HOSPITALITY: Tours and tastings by appointment only, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays at 10:00 a.m.
THE ESTATE: 200 acre ranch, partly planted as vineyard over a century ago; California black bears and other wildlife once thrived here; enormous 120-year-old Picholine olive trees frame a path and view down to the floor of the Napa Valley and Bothe Napa Valley State Park
THE NAME: A tribute to the Smith brothers and the predominant tree on the ranch. The Madrone is an evergreen with a red-brown trunk and branches. In spring the tree bears lily-of-the-valley-like flower clusters; in fall orange-red berries appear.
HONORS: Stu was named one of the wine industry's most inspirational people in January 2018. [Link to Wine Industry Advisor]; Smith-Madrone was named Winery of The Year in 2014 by The Daily Meal and its earliest accolade was winning “Best Riesling” in a field of international rieslings put on by Gault-Millau in 1979. The winery is profiled in a segment of Behind The Glass on SommTV.
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