2018 Color & Sound Pinot Noir Rosé Los Carneros Napa Valley 750 ml

“I’m floating on billowy, cotton-candy-like clouds,” is how Alexis described a rosé that we felt was “pure, precise, and energetic.” So much for all our years of education and experience writing wine descriptions. 

Our refreshing, plush, red-fruited, savory-spiced, and juicy 2018 Color & Sound Pinot Noir Rosé from the Napa side of Los Carneros is your secret weapon for a perfect spring and summer. 

We invited Alexis to lunch at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, California with the promise of a rosé that would have her seeing shapes and colors beyond her wildest dreams. We didn’t mention that she’d be subjected to a blind tasting. 

Over the last couple of years, the many facets of Alexis’ synesthesia have kept us utterly fascinated by her explanations of “the colors and sounds” of wine—as she’s always put it. Last summer she wrote one of the most beautiful descriptions of wine we’ve ever read—so we put it on the back label of our Color & Sound Cabernet, offered this past June, and the entire lot (an under-$30 Napa Cab) sold out in no time—and today we are thrilled to share her Color & Sound Rosé, which we expect to disappear just as quickly.

By the time Alexis arrived to Jeanty, waiting for her were three glasses of pink wine—one almost translucent, one strawberry-pink, and one with a blood-orange hue. “I should have known,” she said, taking a seat with arms crossed and glaring at us with the kind of stare that is all at once charming and only slightly annoyed.   

“We just want your impressions of these rosés,” we said, offering her a glass of Champagne to enjoy in between our blind tasting challenge. Alexis gave a devilish smirk, and took a generous sip of bubbly. She knew exactly what we were doing, so she asked the waiter for a pen and started writing what she knew would be the back label copy, all while carefully lifting each glass of rosé to take in the aromas and flavors.

Putting down her pen and holding up the blood orange-hued rosé: “This one is like...shooting stars,” she said, letting the thought linger in the air. Unsure of how to respond, we sat silently with raised eyebrows.

“I’m just messin’ with you,” she quipped, breaking the tension. “You guys can’t always be so serious about wine! But this one is definitely going to give me dreams. The first sip gave me this overwhelming feeling of floating on billowy, cotton-candy-like clouds. The second sip turned up the volume, and I could hear ‘Sympathique,’ ya know, by Pink Martini.”

“That’s witty,” we said—or something like it. But this little exchange perfectly sums up Alexis, a synesthete (someone who can taste in shapes, colors, and sounds). Alexis has a hard time “drinking anything that doesn’t have a big personality,” she tells us. So, if we were going to bottle a rosé under Color & Sound, it had to have vivid colors and radiant sounds—wine chutzpah. 

So, the “shooting stars” rosé that Alexis liked, the one that had her hearing “Pink Martini”—her preference for it is entirely the reason we are presenting today’s 2018 Color & Sound Rosé. It was sourced from an iconic Los Carneros estate we can’t mention, ushered along by a master of European-style rosé, and aged entirely in stainless steel to preserve the wine’s vitality and freshness. 

Yields were generous in 2018, and the winemaker had set aside an entire lot that came off their flagship blocks. After fermentation, it was robust and larger than life—the opposite of their delicate, Provence-like rosé. It needed a new home, and we were the first phone call. But Alexis’ unwitting preference solidified our decision to choose it. The 2018 Color & Sound rosé is a robust, spicy, unapologetically Californian rosé with the ripeness of a warm West Coast sun, and the verve and energy of taut Carneros acidity. 

We guarantee that it is one of the top under-$20 rosés you will try this year,so case buys are highly recommended. Pairing with Pink Martini is Alexis-suggested.