Pink Catawba and the Held’s Farm
Grandma’s Impressions
My grandmother has somewhat of a history with Stone Hill Pink Catawba, though it has been quite a few years since she tasted it specifically. She leans forward while we sit at her kitchen table and takes a long breath in through her nose, even angling it to attempt a more constrained single nostril smell. Ever since I told her that I would be featuring her in these articles, her seriousness level has gone through the roof, which is pretty endearing to see even if a bit misplaced. Her face is a riot of different emotions as she tries to put what she smells into words. On the nose she gets spice and strawberry with an underlying freshness that she finds delightful. As she takes a sip, she finds it to be sweet and exciting, like the flavor travels in every direction and she doesn’t know where she will end up and she is pleased with the journey. She maintains that her taste in wine runs very much to the dry side, but I do know that in small doses she quite enjoys the sweeter wines.
“This is exciting, flavor goes all over and in every direction, like it’s going to jump off of my tongue”
She compares it to our Golden Rhine, finding that the Golden Rhine is a bit more measured in its approach to her palate.
My Impressions
Like liquid sunset, the beautiful pink wine pours into the glass. Rosé wines are some of the most appealing wines to me, visually. The delicate rose quartz quality of them, varying of course by the wine, has always been one of the more lovely colors that I think wine has to offer.
On the nose I get an instant hit of fresh melon and strawberry, a rich fruitiness that is not cloying but has a lightness to it. I let the first taste roll over my tongue and chew on the sweet fruit flavors that fill my mouth. The melon is much more like a feeling, like the fresh bite out of a cantaloupe while the flavors of table grape and strawberry swirl on my tongue. The surprise, though a welcome one, is the taste of bubblegum, light and sweet, on the middle-back of my tongue and towards the end of my mouthful. The wine is light, refreshing and not at all cloying, the last of which is a danger I run into when tasting sweeter wines as my own palate trends quite dry.
While we sit and sip, as is our norm, my grandmother mulls and muses over the dusty memories she has locked away in her mind. She has very fond memories of drinking Pink Catawba, telling me that this was one of her first wines she actively sought out and enjoyed and where she found her love of wine. When working at Stone Hill, she would share a bottle (or maybe even two) with her friends on the titular hill that the Stone Hill Winery sits on. Watching as evening overtakes the town of Hermann while spending time with her friends has forged memories that has kept Pink Catawba held close to her heart even as her tastes drifted in different directions.
Pairing
We sampled a fruit tray while we drank this wine, and I am not sure if I could have found a better thing to eat while drinking Pink Catawba. The light sweetness and the freshness inherent to the wine experience coupled well with the various fruits, complementing their different flavors and enhancing the freshness found in the fruit to an entirely new level of experience.
Final Thoughts
As I sip on this delightful wine, I think over the dozens of different routes that Jim and Betty Held took in life that could have led them anywhere but Stone Hill Winery. One of the very first wines they sold commercially were from the Catawba grape and the Stone Hill Winery Pink Catawba has maintained its place at the winery, consistently winning awards in competitions both in their own neighborhood and across the world! Without some hard decisions and a dream held tightly to, I would not have been able to sit with my grandmother and enjoy this wine.
Pink Catawba is refreshing and delightful, a delicious, sweet rosé wine that is great chilled or even combined with strawberries in a frozen treat, the recipe of which you can find here.
You can shop Pink Catawba and the rest of our wines Here.
Michael Haggerty is the Shipping Coordinator at Stone Hill Winery and handles all DTC wine shipments.
You can reach him for shipping inquiries via email at shipping@stonehillwinery.com or by phone at 573-486-2221.