Pairing:  Strawberry and Chicken Salad Paired with 2015 Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina Rubentis Rosé

Food:  This salad is almost too pretty to eat. It’s strawberry season here in the northeast part of the U.S.. The season lasts only a few short weeks so we look to serve them with just about everything … breakfast, lunch and dinner.  These sweet, flavorful, fresh berries are absolutely perfect added to a salad of spinach greens, chicken, kiwi fruit, and slivered almonds … all drizzled with a lemon juice and olive oil vinaigrette. Summertime … and the livin’ is easy!

Wine: Txakolina Rubentis is the rosé version of Txakolina, the lightly fizzy wine made in the Getariako Txakolina region of northern Spain … Basque country. It is made from 90% hondarrabi zuni white grapes and 10% hondarrabi belts, a red grape. These grapes are grown virtually nowhere else but in Basque country, and are descended from ancient wild grapes indigenous to this small corner of the world. The Basque people themselves consume the vast proportion of Txakolina wine, with the U.S. being a distant second largest consumer. Indeed, one rarely finds this wine for sale anywhere else, including Spain itself. For me, sampling wines with that heritage and origin is a thrill.

Tasting Notes:  A beautiful pale shade of pink. Imagine yourself out by the clothesline where the dry sheets are billowing over your head while you breathe in the clean fresh smells of the laundry along with the fragrance emanating from the nearby strawberry patch. That’s what you get when you smell this lovely wine. Strawberries and honeysuckle nectar are the gentle flavors, mingling nicely with the slight effervescence tickling your palate. Needless to say, this simple, clean tasting wine pairs wonderfully with the strawberries in the salad. Wine complementing food … food complementing wine.

Other Wines That Pair Well with Strawberry/ Chicken Salad:  Sancerre (Loire Valley), Vinho Verde (Portugal), Chardonnay (Chile), Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand)

Other Foods That Pair Well with a Rosé:  Salad Nicoise, Cold Meat Plate (Salami, Ham, etc), Potato Salad, Paella, Lamb Kebabs

Read About: www.txakoliameztoi.com/en

A Source:  www.wine.com