Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: I often am skeptical when I see names of celebrities on products and wonder how serious the project is? On the wine side, there have always been the use of famous names, and often those wines are nothing more than ordinary. Fortunately the Barrymore name is safe and solid as the wines are quite fine. TASTING NOTES: The 2016 Barrymore by Carmel Road Rosé of Pinot Noir shows up with excellent ripe red fruit, a hint of floral notes, and vibrant acidity. Pair its brightness with a smoked bone-in ham. (Tasted: February 16, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This may be the best bottling yet by actress Drew Barrymore and her team. The pale-pink wine offers light pink lemonade, plum, cherry and bubblegum aromas. The palate combines lime juice, pluot flesh and mandarin zest, set against a chalky backbone and laced with bright acidity.
Whether it’s playful and fun or savory and serious, most rosé today is not your grandmother’s White Zinfandel, though that category remains strong. Pink wine has recently become quite trendy, and this time around it’s commonly quite dry. Since the pigment in red wines comes from keeping fermenting juice in contact with the grape skins for an extended period, it follows that a pink wine can be made using just a brief period of skin contact—usually just a couple of days. The resulting color depends on grape variety and winemaking style, ranging from pale salmon to deep magenta.
A geographic and climatic paradise for grape vines, Monterey is a part of the greater Central Coast AVA and contains within it five smaller sub-appellations, including Arroyo Seco, San Lucas, San Bernabe, Hames Valley and the famous Santa Lucia Highlands. The climate is relatively warm but tempered by cool, coastal winds, allowing the regions in Monterey County an exceptionally long growing season. Bud break often happens two weeks sooner and harvest tends to be two weeks later compared to other surrounding regions.
Monterey’s coastal side, where the cooling ocean fog allows grapes to develop a perfect sugar-acid balance, excels in the production of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Warmer, inland subzones are home to fleshy, concentrated and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Chardonnay, covering about 40% of vineyard acreage, is the most widely planted grape in all of Monterey County.