If you’re looking for an easy way to help the ongoing wine country wildfire recovery in Napa County, Sonoma County, Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, we have the perfect opportunity for you to consider: the 2017 Hi No Tori Rosé.

2017 Hi No Tori Rosé

Kanpai Wines has just released their first wine: the 2017 Hi No Tori Rosé. It is a Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon crafted by famed winemaker Steve Matthiasson from grapes grown on Meadowbrook Farm in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. We recently had the opportunity to taste the wine ourselves and found it to be delicious! The wine has strawberry, ripe cherries, juicy watermelon and a slightly tart plum finish on the palate, all structured within vibrant acidity, and bright mixed red berries and a hint of mint on the nose. This is a Rosé made in the Provencal style with an abv (alcohol by volume) of just 12.5%.  Only 600 cases were produced and the wine retails for $25 per bottle.  Given its structure, the Hi No Tori Rosé will pair with a variety of foods – we personally enjoyed it with a Wild Fennel Braised Pork Shoulder. We recommend that you don’t serve this wine too cold as its beautiful aromatics and nuances of flavor will be lost. So, please take this wine out of your wine cooler or refrigerator about 20 minutes before serving.

Kanpai Wines has pledged to donate a total of $141,600 ($20 per bottle) from the proceeds of sales of the 2017 Hi No Tori Rosé to California Wildfire Relief. The funds will be allocated as follows: 50% to the Napa Valley Community Foundation, 25% to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund, 12.5% to the Ventura County Community Disaster Relief Fund and 12.5% to the Santa Barbara Foundation Community Disaster Relief Fund.

The beautiful label on the bottle has a story: “Hi No Tori” in Japanese means “Bird of Fire.” The concept behind the design of the label was to combine two symbols of hope from Western and Japanese cultures. The Phoenix is known as a symbol of rebirth in Western culture and the origami crane is a symbol of hope in Japanese culture during times of disaster. So, the two were incorporated together on the 2017 Hi No Tori Rosé label to signify the mission of this bottle of wine to help with Wine Country Wildfire Relief. So, please join us in supporting Kanpai Wines in its efforts to aid those in need as a result of the devastating fires that ravaged the counties of Napa, Sonoma, Ventura and Santa Barbara. The 2017 Hi No Tori Rosé can be purchased here on their website.