Rio Madre Rosé, iLurce, Alfaro, Rioja Baja, Spain; $10

I agree with “A Prairie Home Companion’s” Garrison Keillor that people who live in colder climates should stay home during the winter.

It only brings disappointment when you try to escape the frigid months or the mud season to such places as St. Croix, Florida or Arizona, and then have to return home to the lingering cold.

It’s got to be somewhat off-putting for those snowbirds who hop off the return flight dressed in shorts and flip-flops and find themselves shivering.

Those of us who stayed put have developed coping skills. One way we’ve learned to defy the weather is to have a nice glass of rosé to ward off the chill and bring on the true spring.

Rosé is a transitional wine that clears the antifreeze put in our veins by the bold red wines we’ve been drinking since November.

But shifting immediately to what some consider a summer wine could be a shock to the system. Rosé is a much better approach to this time of year, but it should be a rosé unlike the light ones from France, Italy or Portugal that are wonderful in the warmer months. It should be one with a hint of heartiness, perhaps from the arid Rioja region in Spain, a wine made entirely from a lesser-known black grape with rich aromas and a wide range of flavors.

Rio Madre Rose is such a wine. The Escurdero family produces the wine from the finicky Graciano grape, and the result is a deep colored rosé with floral aromas and black fruit and berry flavors.

The Escurderos have owned and operated the Alfaro, Rioja Baja, winery and vineyards since 1940. For the past two decades, the family has been producing fine wines under the Ilurce label, and in 2010 they developed the Rio Madre brand, using exclusively estate-grown Graciano to produce a deep red wine as well as the dark rosé. Also that year, they opened a new winery with up-to-date technology.

Grapes have been grown and wine produced in Rioja since before the Romans occupied northern Spain over 2,300 years ago. Rioja, one of the largest wine regions in the country, is divided into three regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Baja, all with different soils, elevations and climates. Rioja built a reputation, not necessarily a sterling one, by producing red and white wines blended from grapes grown in all three regions, ignoring terroir. The wines were dependable and tasted pretty much the same.

Now, Rioja in general has a new crop of wine producers who are no longer wedded to the homogenous approach of winemaking and are putting an emphasis on estate and single-vineyard wines. The Escurdero family is part of the movement that fosters the belief that good wines are made in the vineyard, and many of those wines are produced from slow-growing, small and intensely flavored grapes grown on old vines with deep roots that suck the most out of the soils and
the terroir.

In their use of 100 percent Graciano, the Escurderos are following the trend. Graciano has rarely been used as a label grape and was part of the universal Rioja blend. But even in that role, Graciano lost favor because it is slow-growing and low-yielding, attributes that give the wine it produces its intense flavors and the characteristic floral aroma.

Rio Madre is an unusually flavorful rosé that is perfect to drink on those evenings when you are looking forward to white wine season. It is widely available at bargain prices, often near or under $10.

Suggestions of wines in the $10 range are always appreciated. Warren Johnston can be reached at raise.your.glass.to.wine@gmail.com.