No, it is not. Not officially. If you live in the deep south, like me, not even unofficially. We have got at least a full month, if not two, of summer like weather ahead of us.

I suppose Labor Day triggers the end of Summer in most people’s minds because there was a time (wow, am I dating myself) when Labor Day meant the return to school. No one can argue that definitely equals the end of Summer. Unofficially at least.

I marked this officially unofficial occasion by opening a rose wine called Summer In A Bottle. There. You can have Summer anytime you’d like by opening this wine.

Many are familiar with this popular wine from the Wolffer Estate located on Long Island in New York. A gorgeous bottle, a great name, and the wine is genuinely delicious.

There is a little slight of hand going on here. Wolffer produces two versions of Summer In A Bottle, a Provence wine and a Long Island wine. I have enjoyed the Provence version many times, but I have been on the hunt for the Long Island wine for awhile now. I only seem to come across the Provence version on retail shelves near me, but alas, last month, a bottle of the Long Island wine was staring me in the face at my local Whole Foods. This is my first Long Island wine!

I noted aromas of fresh fruit, rose, a chalky minerality. All of this carried over to the palate and came across as an even higher acidity than I get from most rosés. The winemaker suggests pairing with all the things you would expect to eat during the Summer in the Hamptons: lobster, shrimp, soft cheeses. We decided to go in the complete opposite direction and pair with with smoked bbq baby back pork ribs and we absolutely loved it!

The rub for the ribs and the sauce came from a recipe from the cookbook Fire + Wine, by Mary Cressler and Sean Martin. My husband played with the rub a bit, but I used the Pinot Noir BBQ Sauce just as written, which was excellent. We also had fresh corn on the cobb, and grilled peaches. Personally, I think that rosé is always a food wine and I highly recommend trying this one, or any rosé, with something big and bold.

This wine has some very interesting things going on! The grapes grow on Long Island on 55 acres controlled by the estate, about two and half miles from the Atlantic ocean. The winemakers compare it climatically to Bordeaux. The vines grow in Bridgehampton loam soil – a new one on me – and I am guessing very specific to this region.

This wine is a blend of TEN grapes! Ready? Here they are: 53% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Chardonnay, 4.5% Riesling, 4% Cayuga, 2.5% Pinot Meunier, 1% Gewurztraminer, and .5% Semillon. Each wine is made separately and then blended for this bottle.

Not only is the blending of the red and white grapes interesting to me – 6 white and 4 red – but also they have thrown in a hybrid grape. Developed specifically for this region at Cornell University, the Cayuga grape is a vitis lambrusca species of grape, native to the eastern seaboard of the United States. Most wine grapes come from the vitis vinifera species native to the Mediterranean.

I would love to pick the winemaker’s brain on this. It is so intriguing me to that you can taste a blend of 9 grapes, and think you know what this needs? Four percent of Cayuga. My palate will never be that good and this sort of thing will always blow my mind.

Cheers to the change of seasons. We do know it is coming whether it is sooner or later for you and your region. Most importantly, cheers to interesting wines and all the joy they bring.