Wine of the week: the Lucy, 2021 Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County Rosé of Pinot Noir

When most people were sheltering in place during the pandemic, Jeff Pisoni was sheltering in the cellar.

“The silver lining of the pandemic is that we never left the cellar,” explained the winemaker of Pisoni Vineyards in Gonzales. “While we realize that events and travel are part of our job, for many of us our favorite part of the job is in the cellar, close to the wine. This is definitely true for me. I love my time in the cold barrel room surrounded by our wine.”

Pisoni is behind our wine of the week winner — the Lucy, 2021 Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County Rosé of Pinot Noir, 13.9%, $22. This rosé is gorgeous. Buoyed by bright acidity, it has notes of stone fruit — nectarine and peach — with watermelon in the blend. The Lucy also has great minerality and finishes crisp. It’s spot on.

What most of the uninitiated don’t know about rosé is that it benefits from a particular farming style, the winemaker said.

“Most of the fruit for this rosé is farmed intentionally for rosé,” he said. “We have dedicated rows from our growers, and this rosé sees dedicated farming inputs — specific soil selections, irrigation, canopy work, etc., to develop this wine profile.”

Pisoni said he’s fascinated by the nuances in wine, and this is particularly true when crafting rosé.

“There are so many subtle smells and tastes and colors all along the farming and winemaking process that are important and influence the wine you’re making,” he said.

One example, Pisoni said, is the simple act of walking by fermenting barrels and noticing the fermentation aromas in the room. “Sometimes you can tell the health of a fermentation like this, before even smelling the wine itself,” he said. “One just needs to always be observant and perceptive to the signs that a wine is giving off.”

The challenging part of making rosé is that it’s transparent because it’s so delicate, the winemaker said.

“Much of a great rosé is the beautiful expression and purity, and there is nothing for it to hide behind,” Pisoni said. “There’s no new oak, no malo-lactic fermentation and basically no tannins. It’s all about this delicate balance of properly farmed, fermented and bottled wine.”

Pisoni’s curiosity about wine was piqued by his father, Gary Pisoni. The vintner began as an experimental farmer, planting grapes on the family’s mountainous property in 1982. As a teenager, Pisoni did blind tastings with his father.

“I was always fascinated with my father’s wine cellar,” he said. “His cellar was under the house and had a dirt floor that gave a rustic feel and also allowed for higher humidity … The smell of the damp cellar floor is one of those childhood memories that will always be with me.”

The winemaker said he takes great pride in crafting the Lucy rosé because he knows the pink wine has a positive ripple effect. For each bottle sold, the winery donates $1 to breast cancer research.

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.