Welcome to National Rosé Month! Or so it seems, to scan the wine section of any newspaper in June. Wine writers treat rosés like Emily Post treats white shoes: dusted off for Memorial Day, retired on Labor Day, perfect for summer but verboten from September to May. Even as they tout the growing popularity of rosés among both consumers and winemakers, the once-a-year rosé roundups rarely appear in any month but this one, making drinking pink synonymous with the reappearance of Speedos on Dolores Beach and speedboats on Clear Lake: a drink for vacationland and summer shares, poured poolside, lakeside, out on the deckside.

And with good reason, frankly: while a good rosé is worth drinking any day of the year, there's no denying that their strawberry hues and Jolly Rancher bouquets are best enhanced by long, sunshiny afternoons that postpone the twilight until deep in the evening. Like a summer romance, these are wines of instant enchantment, capturing the bliss of a moment. There's just something kissable about a rosé, something that makes you want to pucker up, put the glass to your lips, and laugh.

Fresh, light, a little racy, with a jazzy red-fruit profile that dips from strawberries to cherries to thirst-quenching watermelon: that's your typical Mediterranean-ready rosé, and the type I like best for my summer sipping. For one like this, look no further than Domaine de la Fouquette's Cuvee Rosée d'Aurore ($16.50), made in Provence from a blend of 65% grenache, 35% cinsault, and 5% rolle grapes. Pale salmon in the glass, it balances its watermelon bounce with a smooth white-linen crispness that keeps it fresh and pleasing from sip to sip.

Jeff Diamond, owner of Farmstead Cheeses and Wines in Montclair and Alameda, drinks rosé at home all year round. 85% of the time, if I come home and my wife's got a glass in her hand, it's going to be a rosé," says Jeff, pointing out her particular favorite, the Domaine de la Mordorée Tavel ($28). Tavel, of course, is an A.O.C. region in southern France where nothing but rose is made, and the grapes for this wine are not just grown in Tavel but grown biodynamically by what Diamond dubs "the best Rhône producer on the planet." The end result? A supple, meaty rosé, nearly magenta, that's a smooth, suave dinner-party companion to grilled lamb or salmon. It's a rosé to convert even the hardiest of red-wine drinkers. "In our house, we probably go through 7 or 8 cases a year of this," notes Diamond. (More for weekday drinking is the Domaine de la Mordoree's Cotes du Rhône: light and balanced, a very nice food wine, and at $18, ten dollars further down the splurge scale.)

"For the stores, we stock up on rosés for the summer, but we sell them all year around. It's exceedingly versatile; it goes with all the things whites go with, and some of the things reds go with," especially anything that teeters between salty and sweet, like ham. The shop's selection can range from a dozen up to 20 different varieties, generally all European-made. Right now, the best-seller is Domaine Sorin Terra Amata another grenache-dominated, good-value blend from the Côtes de Provence.

At Heart wine bar on Valencia, the menu offers not just one but two pink sparklers. Trying strenuously to veer away from its Sex & the City implications, the writeup for Wilfrid Rousse Chinon Rose de Saignée warns "Call it blush and get smacked. And it's DRY." For the German Gilabert Rose Cava, it's "Champagne-Snobbery+Girliness=Rose Cava."

And while I wouldn't agree that only snobbery stands between real French Champagne and Spanish Cava, if you're going to drink pink bubbles in a place that serves their wine in jam jars, you might as well stick to cava.

Looking for something a little more grown-up? Head over to Maverick and order a glass of Donkey and Goat Grenache Gris Rosé, made by a Berkeley winemaking couple from Mendocino grapes and a delectable match to the Baltimore crab fluffs or the buttermilk fried chicken in black-pepper gravy.

At Piccino, the neighbors in Dogpatch will be toasting Dad by drinking pink for the restaurant's annual rosé fest, on Sunday June 20th from noon-5pm. As always, there will be numerous rosés to try, matched with a pink-friendly menu. (Expect some seafood to go with the usual pizzas, contorni, and salads.)

At Farmstead Cheeses and Wine, there will be a special tastings of rosés at the end of the month, in the Montclair store on June 25 from 5:30-7:30pm and in Alameda on June 26th from 2:30-4:30pm.

Even the posh Bordeaux lovers over at Emeryville's Premier Cru loosen up a little come summertime. But not so much that they lose their European focus. Writes James Gillerman,

Yes, I have had very pleasant rosé wines from Sancerre (pinot noir), from New Zealand, from Napa, from Bordeaux (cabernet sauvignon and merlot primarily), from Marsannay in Burgundy (pinot noir again), but I always seem to return to the wines of Tavel and Bandol, perhaps a few other southern Rhone appellations for the most reliably satisfying examples.

Right now, the shop is offering several roses from the south of France, including Domaine Tempier Bandol Rose '09 ($24.99), the classic rosé lover's rosé. Writes Gillerman, "I like this release vintage after vintage. Consistently one of the best roses out there on the market. Primarily Mourvedre, with a smattering of other grapes thrown in." Also on the shelves are two affordable summer quaffers from Provence's Chateau Paradis, Terre de Provence Rosé ($11.99) and Terres des Anges Rosé ($13.99), both made from a blend of cabernet sauvignon and syrah.

Brian Zucker helped pioneer the world of online wine shopping as an undergrad at U.C. Davis. In 1997, he still needed more credits to graduate (he was in his fifth year at Davis), and had noticed how popular the website was for the now defunct Virtual Vineyards, even though he thought that company's prices and selection weren't great. So he talked his AgEcon (Agricultural Economics) professor into giving him credit for designing a primitive online wine shop.

That school project became the basis for K&L Wine Merchant's industry leading online store of today. Zucker happens to be the son of one of the store's founders. "I knew I wanted to be in the business," he says, "but I wanted to carve out a distinctive niche within the company."

In my last post I wrote about the Bay Area's diverse selection of brick and mortar wine shops. This time, I'm covering online retailers.

The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher recently did a comprehensive piece on this subject, and rated their favorite sites. K&L topped the list--a real coup for the Bay Area. K&L's flagship store is in Redwood City, with major branches in San Francisco and Hollywood.

I don't shop for wine online, because I don't want to pay the shipping charges, which can be substantial. Zucker says there's "no shortage of people willing to try things we recommend and collectors looking for rare and highly rated wines for drinking or investment."

"Food and wine nuts with more eclectic tastes," are also model customers, according to Zucker.

"K&L succeeds," he says, "because it offers great prices." (It does.) But it also offers real-time inventory for its warehouse and all three stores. "With the core audience, that's the key. They know they'll get the product they want." Many other sites list wine that might be in inventory, or might have just sold out.

I went looking on K&L's site for California Cabernet Sauvignon, from 1989 (not a great vintage, but my daughter's birth year); I quickly found a dozen choices, including the last bottle of Duckhorn Howell Mountain Red for $90. Good price and could be delicious. The site tells you up front that the bottle is at K&L's Redwood City Store, so in fact, I could probably have had it at my door the next day. Zucker says that many customers from around Northern California order wine online and then pick it up at the San Francisco store to save shipping costs.

So how about something to drink tonight, now that spring is here and asparagus is sprouting in every produce aisle? Zucker recommends a 2007 Sancerre from Franck Millet ($17), imported by K&L. I tasted refreshing, delicious citrus in the mouth, and loved the lemongrass in the aromas. It should be great with hollandaise.

There's lots more online wine shopping possible out there, but the other Bay Area company worth browsing is Wine.com, —the leading Internet wine retailer, according to one rating service.

The company is working hard to "expand and enhance the community section," says Gwendolyn Osborn, Wine.com's director of content. "We're starting Twitter accounts, and we want to link that up for Facebook users and other social media so you'll be able to share reviews and tasting notes." The site already offers customer reviews to balance the point scores from the likes of Wine Spectator, and the powerful Robert Parker. Wine.com also features a fantastic Google mapping service, which shows the location of the winery and its neighbors. That feature is worth a visit, whether you're buying or not.

When you click on the wine you're looking for, both K&L and Wine.com suggest others you might like—a feature that's tougher to provide in a brick and mortar store. If you're looking for, say, a great Cornas from the Northern Rhone, the sites can quickly show you similar wines like Shiraz from Australia or Syrah from California or Washington state.

"The best customers," Osborn says, "are people who are open to trying new things and are willing to branch out from their favorites."

Osborn adds that one of her favorite wines right now is the hard-to-find 2006 A Donkey and Goat "The Recluse" Syrah ($34), made in Berkeley. Only one problem: it's sold out at Wine.com, proving how tricky it can be to keep track of inventory. That said, you can also shop for much of Wine.com's immense warehouse inventory at its new retail shop, on 4th Street in Berkeley.

Wine.com is easily your best choice if you're worried about shipping laws. Even with a U.S. Supreme Court decision a few years ago that set new rules for interstate shipping, it may be challenging to send a birthday wine to someone in Florida or other states. "We follow all the crazy shipping laws," Osborn explains, "and we have warehouses in Florida, for example. So if you're buying a wine for your friend, that wine would ship out of our warehouse there, saving you money and keeping carbon costs down. And it would arrive overnight."

Wine.com royally pissed off many competitors last year by running a sting to entrap them, then turning their names in to state authorities. "We want a fair playing field," says Osborn "If the states are going to enforce the laws for us, we want them to enforce them for others, or change them."

K&L was one of the wineries named in the complaint. And while K&L's Zucker admits they "have a difference of opinion about the legality of that particular shipment," he graciously adds the people at Wine.com are "good guys."

Tasting Notes

I've been building up a surplus of tasting notes since I last posted. The most interesting set come from a recent tasting I did with Napa Valley's Tom Eddy. He grows fabulous under-the-radar Cabernet Sauvignon on Diamond Mountain, and other hilly sites, and is on a rampage these days against "over-the-top wines—too ripe, too tannic, with not enough acid, and way too much alcohol."

Eddy invited some wine writers to what he called the "Take Back the Cab '09 Tour" at Cav Wine Bar and Kitchen in San Francisco, pitting his wines against other Napa Cabs from the much vaunted (and perhaps overrated) 1997 vintage, and from 2004.

The competition (I'm only listing the most striking disappointments) didn't show very well. The 1997 Beringer Home Vineyard ($123) offered great chocolate truffle in the nose, but seemed fumed out of the glass, and tasted out of balance. The 1997 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet ($165) was soft and lovely in the mouth, but showed volatile acidity and baby-diaper character in the nose.

Eddy's 1997 Napa Valley Cabernet was more restrained, but lovely, with cedar and tobacco leaf in the nose, and layers and layers of flavor in the mouth, with just enough tannin to go a few more years.

The 2004s were more fetching as a group. The 2004 Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($518!) seemed pruny and hot, hot, hot, and not very interesting in the mouth. I liked the 2004 Vineyard 29 ($238) Cabernet Sauvignon, with its dill and rich mocha aromas, and long finish. But Eddy's 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet ($90, but not yet released) still stood out for its truth in varietal character—with cedar, black currant, coffee, and green leaves in the nose, and firm tannins and delicious fruit in the mouth.

It was a reminder to take wine ratings from Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, and others with a grain of salt. The moral: Trust your own palate.

By the way, if you're looking for any of these wines to buy, try these sites: wine-searcher.com or vinquire.com. You may notice Wine.com and K&L pop up a lot when you're searching for hard-to-find wines.

Lest you think this is an odd title for a food and wine blog, I'm here to tell you a story and bring meaning to its significance.

Once upon a time (well, back in 2002), a guy named Jared and a girl named Tracey decided to quit their day jobs and travel to France to learn how to make wine. For a year the two worked between the Rhone Valley and Burgundy for renowned French winemaker Eric Texier. Each day brought a new adventure: learning about elevage, becoming familiar with winery operations, and living through a very rainy harvest.

Every day Tracey and Jared walked past a field where there lived a donkey and a goat. Thinking it rather odd, the pair began to notice similar couplings throughout the countryside. So they decided to ask a local. They found out that donkeys are used in France to eat the weeds in the vineyards, without disrupting the delicate vines. But they are moody and difficult. Goats, apparently a happy-go-lucky type, like to hang out with donkeys and keep them company. A vineyard pairing made in heaven.

So where am I going with this? In 2003, Jared and Tracey returned to San Francisco, determined to start their own winery. And what did they decide to call it? A Donkey and Goat.

Starting out in the basement of a friend's house in Potrero Hill (a friend who just so happens to now be the owner of Crushpad), the couple made two Syrahs and a Chardonnay. They also spent the year researching and meeting with growers throughout California. Shortly thereafter, they moved their operations to Crushpad, where Tracey also works as the Director of Sales and Marketing. You can read all the details on their website, but essentially Crushpad is an urban winery (actually, located right across from KQED!) where you can make custom wines, with as much or as little participation as you want. It's cool.

Currently, with their 2004 vintage, Jared and Tracey have 17 barrels from 4 vineyards: Carson Ridge, Brosseau, McDowell Valley, and Vidmar. These include Syrah, Chardonnay, and a rose. Which is where I come in.

A few months ago Jared and Tracey were kind enough to send over 2 bottles of their rose wine, a 2004 Grenache Gris (named Isabel's Cuvee, after their daughter), to our BAB Springfeast. (Um, we still haven't blogged about that, but it's hopefully coming soon.) Anyway, we chilled the wine and after wrestling with the thick wax seal (which looks really cool but isn't user friendly, a fact that Jared readily admits and explained later that it was a last-resort to seal the bottles and that they wouldn't be doing it again), we were all delightfully surprised by the dark color of the rose. The rose proved to be full-bodied, fruity, and yet still a bit tart and dry. The perfect compliment to most foods, from fish to poultry to pork.

We were so intrigued that we set up a barrel tasting at Crushpad so that we might try the other wines that the duo is producing. Jared was the perfect host (unfortunately Tracey couldn't make it): explaining their winemaking philosophy; their goals, preferences, and differences in making wine (such as picking into small bins so as not to damage the grapes, fermenting reds and whites in wood, and natural fermentation); using ver jus to balance their wines; his passion for the technical side of winemaking (ie being in the lab); and Crushpad's model.

First we tasted three different Syrahs from Carson Ridge, one that had Viognier added and two without. We all decided the Syrah with the Viognier was our favorite from that particular vineyard. Next, we moved on to their Vidmar Vineyard Syrahs. We tasted two barrels, one called 877 which Jared described as more feminine, and another, the Estrella River, which he described as more masculine. Wendy and I preferred the Estrella, which was richer, fuller, and spicier than the 877, Jared's preference. The last Syrah that we tasted was the McDowell Valley Old Vine. It was intense and seemed like it had a lot of potential.

Before I move on to the whites, if you have never been barrel tasting, I highly recommend it. This was my second opportunity (the first being at Peter Michael a few years back when a close friend worked there). You not only learn about the process of winemaking, but the nuances of aging wine and all that goes into its creation.

We finished with two Chardonnays. The first was still finishing fermentation, so it was very young and not terribly drinkable. The other was made with added verjus. It was crisp, minerally, and really delicious. I have to admit, I'm not a huge Chardonnay fan, at least not the overly oaky, buttery California Chards. I prefer the leaner French-style whites, and that is what Jared and Tracey also look for in a Chard. I'll definitely order a few bottles of these!

All in all, we learned a lot, drank a lot, and had a great time doing it. Keep your eyes out for this young winery; Tracey and Jared are not only knowledgeable and passionate about what they are doing, but they are already producing some fantastic wines.

Photos by Wendy Goodfriend