Asparagus is supposed to be one of the foods that you cannot pair a wine with, which is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard in the history of the world. Besides Sauv Blanc, Chenin Blanc, etc. I also find that rose goes great with it. My new favorite rose is from South Africa, the 2006 Mulderbosch Rose. It’s made from 100% Cabernet and is a red-wine drinker’s rose. By that I mean that it’s not a pale, southern French rose (which I L-O-V-E), but a little darker. It is not, however, sweet or cloying. It was fantastic with an asparagus soup with a dash of cream. (Thanks Darrell.)

And I cannot find an image of this wine to do the incredible label (touch it, it’s textured!) justice. If you brought this wine to a backyard BBQ you would be a rock star. It looks SO cool. It’s probably the ultimate cheeseburger wine. The boxes that it ships in are super cool. It’s my (non-French) rose of the summer!