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It’s spring in Long Island wine country — and for many of you, that means rosé. And if you’re drinking Long Island rosé, there’s a good chance it’s a Wölffer rosé. Winemaker Roman Roth makes a handful of them — including sparkling and dessert wine — and he makes a lot of them. In fact, Wölffer makes more bottles of rosé than many local wineries make of all their wines combined. 

But Wölffer and Roth have also just released some new vintages of the winery’s “White Horse” selections — the ones with the white horses on the labels — which they say “embody the strong heritage and high quality of Wölffer Estate.”

This week’s Wine of the Week, Wölffer Estate 2015 Fatalis Fatum ($37) is a blend of 39.5 percent Merlot, 38.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 22 percent Cabernet Franc and it’s one of the best blends I’ve tasted this calendar year — with many good years ahead of it. (Look for my column next week for more information about Roth’s age-worthy reds)

Black cherries and blackberries are sprinkled with earthy spice, chickory coffee grounds and cocoa nibs. The minerally graphite quality that is so common in Wölffer’s top reds is here too all within a palate that shows nice ripeness without going over to jammy, with well-incorporated, fine-grained tannins and some juicy acidity.

The folks at Wölffer recommend pairing it with rich red meats—especially lamb and game, wild mushroom risotto or aged and “stinky” cheeses.

If you’re going to drink this now, I’d recommend decanting it for a few hours — it really opened up for me on the third day open on my counter. Those pairings sound good to me, but you also might want to just have it by the fire pit on a cool summer evening.

This wine is available for $37 at the winery’s Sagaponack tasting room.

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