If you’re a regular reader, you know that 5 years ago my husband and I sold our house in Tampa and headed up to the NE Georgia Mountains. We didn’t have a new house yet and rented an apartment for the longest 6 weeks of my life. We found our new home within 2 days of arriving, it had land, privacy, basement and the very important fireplace, well it’s an Appalachian stove, so not quite a fireplace.

For 5 years, we’ve lived a quiet life on wooden land, no neighbors that are too close and it has been delightful. I’d often take a walk through the wooden lot that bumped up to our property. I’d walk amongst the trees, both those standing and those fallen, down to an old dry creek bed. It was peaceful and I enjoyed being in the woods.

That’s all changing now as the lot where I once walked, sold. We wanted to buy the land and expressed interest to the first owner (it changed hands after a death) but the new owner didn’t come to us. The day the for sale went up, it was under contract and now the latest land owners are building a house. They cleared an acre of land, I mean who buys a wooden lot and takes so many trees down? Now we have a mere 80-foot barrier of hard woods between us and them. At first I was angry, then sad and now I’m just trying to learn to live with what will soon come.

I’m trying to find the silver linings and the other night it was warm enough to sit on the porch and drink some wine. While looking out across our wooden lot and through the now bare lot, I saw a small piece of the Dahlonega Mountains was now in view. It’s not much and it won’t be visible once the leaves come back but like I said, I’m looking for silver linings. I also realized we’ll get a lot more light now that the trees are gone. This still won’t be our forever home but I’m hoping we can live with people being so close.

Speaking of wine, I received a wine sample for Rosa Regale Sparkling Red.

Intoxicating rose petal aroma, I seriously could not get enough of the delicate aroma. Flavors of strawberry and raspberry, sweet wine but very well balanced. This truly was a pretty wine and I need to find where I can buy.

Using 100% Brachetto grapes grown at the La Rosa Vineyard, Rose Regale is created in one of Italy’s smallest production zones, the Brachetto d’Acqui Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, also known as DOCG. Try saying that three times after a couple of glasses of wine.

Once harvested, the pressed grapes are left to soak on the skins for 2 to 3 days, giving the wine a lower alcohol content (7%). This method also gives the wine its beautiful pink color. Rosa Regale is produced using the Charmat process or Metodo Italiano (Italian Method). In this method, the second fermentation happens in large stainless steel tanks prior to bottling versus traditional sparkling or Champaign methods which occur in the bottle.

I see a lot more wine in my future as I try to get over this new change in our lifestyle. As I sit here typing, I hear the pounding of hammers and loud bangs as the framing on the house has begun…sigh…