Pink wine from California is usually off-putting. Either it’s too sweet, as in a white zinfandel. Or the pink is too, well, red — as in too fruity and alcoholic, and lacking the earthy notes and refreshing acidity of a rosé with a good European pedigree.

But I was won over recently by a Sonoma County rosé from a relatively new winery in Carneros called Nicholson Ranch.

This wine, which Nicholson calls “Ramona,” was ruby-colored, weighty, and complicated like a red. (The fact that it’s made from Pinot Noir may have something to do with its complexity.) But it had the citrus snappiness and flavor profile of a white, including apricot, peaches, and a little mandarin orange. And although the wine was totally dry, I was done in by the taste of cherry pie and cream on the finish.

A glass of Ramona set me back $8 at Red Grape in Sonoma, to which I will definitely return, not only because the wine went perfectly with my Cajun chicken sandwich, but because the restaurant let me sit out front with my puppy. (He looks coincidentally similar to the Nicholson’s dog pictured above.)