2005 Rosso Di Sette Fratelli Merlot

If winter is getting you down, it’s time to plan ahead for BBQ season by cellaring some wine for your first outdoor grill of the year.  Eric Hansen of Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards recommends the 2005 Rosso Di Sette Fratelli Merlot. Currently the assistant tasting room manager at Cline Cellars, Hansen left a career in software consulting to pursue a career in the wine industry.  Before joining Cline he worked crush for a small start-up winery.

The fruit for this wine is grown in the winery’s Sonoma Coast estate vineyards near Petaluma.  “It’s a cool region near that gets a good amount of fog and the wine reflects it, with lots of spice, herbal notes and a bit of chocolate along with the blackberry fruit.  It’s a great choice for a grilled rib-eye or flat-iron steak, especially with an herb rub,” says Hansen.  This wine ages for 18 months in both French and American oak, of which about 30 percent is new oak.

Owned by Fred and Nancy Cline of Cline Cellars, Jacuzzi Family Vineyards (bearing that last name of Fred’s maternal grandfather) hosts one of Sonoma’s most beautiful tasting rooms right across the street from Cline’s original down-home and friendly tasting room.  Hansen explained that “sette fratelli” means “seven brothers.”  This wine, he notes, “pays homage to the original seven Jacuzzi brothers that started the Jacuzzi Brothers Co.”  The family moved to the U.S. from Italy after World War I. They invented the first lightweight airplane propeller, which they called ‘Jacuzzi Toothpick.’  But they are better known for inventing the Jacuzzi spa.  The Rosso Di Sette Fratelli can be found on the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards web site for $20.00.