Please drink responsibly LiquorandWineOutlets.com • JULY 2016 | 23

Avid runner Crystal Seeley had returned from a long training session earlier in the

day, when she thought it would be a good time for a glass of wine. She remembered she had a bottle of rosé waiting to be opened. There was just one problem: she never really enjoyed rosés, and wasn’t sure if the wine was the right choice.

Spoiler alert: It was.“I tried to go into it with an open mind,” Seeley

says of the Commanderie de la Bargemone Rosé 2015. “And this wine exceeded my expectations.”

Her willingness to challenge steadfast tastes is another facet to the fascinating Charleston, South Carolina transplant. She began work with Holloway Motor Cars in 1997, loves running (she’ll pace and crew for her sister in a 100 mile ultra-marathon near Seattle this summer – “I come from a line of pretty extraordinary women,” she says,) and spent time living in Europe with her husband, former professional hockey player and current Manchester Monarchs Head coach and general manager, Richard Seeley. While she had devel-oped an appreciation for wine by the time the couple decamped for Vienna Austria several years ago to follow Richard’s hockey career, it’s there she discovered even more wines of note.

“We found wine in amazing places,” she says. “We were in Italy all the time, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and we always indulged in what was local. I’d write things down and circle back and do research. It was fun, and that way I could better articulate what I liked in a wine.”

Through the years, and her evolution as a wine enthusiast, there was one bottle that stands out in her memory. “It was a bottle of Opus One,” Seeley says. “A group of us were at a casino in Las Vegas, and people were in awe of this bottle of Opus One. We cracked it open in a suite and I thought, ‘wow, this is pretty amazing.’ I kind of got it. I also knew I probably wasn’t going to get it again. It was mythical. I knew it was really special, complex and interesting.”

Seeley recently sampled the Commanderie de la Bargemone Rosé 2015. Bargemone is one of the foremost estates of the Coteaux d’Aix appellation of Provence, a renowned producer of dry rosé – which is great, if you tend to enjoy rosé.

“I’m not usually a rosé fan,” Seeley says. “I have friends who travel for work extensively, and they have a favorite rosé that they brought on our boat a few years ago. I wouldn’t even taste it.”

Seeley said her tastes tend to lean toward stronger, bolder flavors.

“When I was carrying my son I took a long break from wine,” she says. “Now I’ve returned to it. Before, I was a Cabernet drinker – the bigger the better. That’s changed where now I’ll venture into Pinot Noir and whites. Ironically, the wine I like the least, normally, is rosé. So I thought with this bottle, maybe it’s a rosé I can appreciate.”

It was. This rosé offers classic notes of wild strawberries and red currants with light floral character.

“I have to say, I enjoyed this one,” she says. “It had a pale color – beautiful. It had just a little tinge of rose to it, just enough one might forget it was a rosé.”

Seeley brought it to a lake house up north, and though it was cold, it was sunny. The avid runner settled in to a waterfront patio, opened the bottle and kept an open mind.

“The first sip, I thought it was kind of different – it wouldn’t be my first choice,” she said. “But by the second sip, it started to remind me of a Sauvignon Blanc, and I knew I wanted to give it a chance. It was like a fruitier, a bit more crisp Sauvignon Blanc. I could taste pomegranate, almost, some grapefruit, and I could see how it would be really refreshing to sit back and have on a hot day.”

She had it again the next night, this time with a frittata with asparagus and goat cheese.

“For this particular bottle, which was beautiful to look at, I must say, it was very reasonably priced and I will buy this and keep this,” Seeley says. “We do a lot of entertaining up north, out on the water, and I think people will really enjoy it.

“A lot of Chardonnays are a little too buttery, too rich for some palates. For people who may be new to wine, even, I think they would appreciate this. It would be awesome with tapas or summer type fare – a meal of salmon or cheese and crack-ers with some fruit. Things like that.”

The Commanderie de la Bargemone Rosé made a statement, she says. In a word, the wine said “summer.”

“Quite frankly, it’s pretty approachable,” she says. “What I preach about wine is that you don’t have to be afraid of it. You don’t have to spend a lot of money for a good bottle of wine, and this one really hit that mark.”

The Wine Enthusiast

Item #12478 Commanderie de la Bargemone Rosé 2015750 mL

Reg. price: $18.99

Enthusiast: Crystal S. Seeley, Director of Sales Operations, Holloway Motor Cars and Partner at Holloway Fiat

Selected Wine: Commanderie de la Bargemone Rosé 2015

Pallini Limoncello and Iced Tea

PALLINI LIMONCELLO is crafted using only the fi nest Sfusato lemons, organically grown on the hillsides of the Amalfi Coast. Sfustato lemons are renowned in Italy, not only for their size, but also for their remarkable perfume and sweetness. They are picked by hand, peeled and the zest is trasported to Rome where is it infused at the Pallini distillery for days to create the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Pallini Limoncello, 26% ABV, Imported by Castle Brands, New York, NY. Enjoy Pallini responsibly.