Rosé – Still Misunderstood and Looking for Love?
This Wednesday, August 14th, is the Wine Blogging Wednesday event, where all wine bloggers get the chance to share their thoughts and experiences related to the designated theme. The theme of this upcoming Wine Blogging Wednesday event, or WBW for short, is Rosé – here are the details of the announcement. This is what this blog post is all about.
How often do you drink Rosé? Do you think Rosé is fully understood and appreciated by the consumers en mass? I’m afraid that many wine drinkers still have a notion that Rosé is either sweet, or strictly seasonal, or mostly inferior, or all of the above. I remember being in France about 7 years ago, in November, and ordering a bottle of Tavel in a restaurant. My French colleague gave me a look, and then said sternly “just keep in mind, you are ordering a summer wine” – of course he has an excuse as a Burgundy buff, but still – even in France, people often see Rosé as seasonal wine, not as a wine you can drink all the year around. In the US, yo would rarely find Rosé on the main shelves – they are usually setup on a side, ready to be replaced by the holiday wines, and slowly moving to the “closeout bins” as summer comes to an end.
Many people judge Rosé by the color, which reminds them of White Zinfandel, and think it is a sweet wine. I have seen many people come to taste the wines at the store and refuse the glass of Rosé simply saying “no, thank you, I don’t drink sweet wines”. It really takes time to convince them that the wine they are refusing is actually perfectly dry, refreshing and food friendly – and not only during summer, but all year around.
Having presented this pinkish “doom and gloom” to you, I actually have to admit (happily) that over the past 3-4 years, the situation is changing to the better. Even as a seasonal wine, there is really an abundance of Rosé offered in the wine stores. More and more wineries and winemakers now include Rosé as part of their standard offering, year in, year out. This happens in France, this happens in Georgia, this happens in California, Greece, Italy, Spain, New York and many other places.
The great thing about Rosé is that they are some of the easiest wines to drink – and some of the food-friendliest. Rosé typically has a flavor profile of a light red wine, with strawberries, cranberries and onion peel being some of the main characteristics – it also lacks the punch of tannins as skin, seeds and stems contact is minimized during the winemaking. At the same time, Rosé typically has savory complexity coupled with acidity which is usually a bit less than the acidity of a dry white wine. Overall, it is easy to drink and food friendly – what else do you need from wine? Of course I’m not advocating that the whole world should start drinking only Rosé at this point – but Rosé definitely has its own permanent (not seasonal!) place on the shelves of the wine stores and in your wine cellars.
Let me now give you two great examples of Rosé wines.
2012 Williams Selyem Vin Gris of Pinot Noir Russian River Valley (12.9% ABV) – bright concentrated pink color, reminiscent of cranberry juice. Strawberries and cranberries on the nose, same on the palate, lots of strawberries and cranberries, very dry, perfect acidity, very balanced overall and very easy to drink. Drinkability: 8-
2011 Antica Terra Erratica Willamette Valley Oregon (13.1% ABV) – another 100% Pinot Noir Rosé. What a treat! Perfectly bright strawberry red in color, nice nose of raspberries and cherries. First the wine opened into a light Pinot Noir, showing some smokiness and earthiness, then evolved into into bright strawberry and onion peel wine, classic Rosé, and then it was gone… Drinkability: 9-
There you have it, my friends. Open a bottle of your favorite Rosé, pour a glass and enjoy – however remember – sometimes Rosé is too easy to drink… Oops, did we just finished this bottle? Cheers!
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Onion peel?!? I’ve never heard that as a descriptor before, but I love it!! Here’s to dry Rosé! Salud!!
From my experience onion peel is often associated with Rosé both in terms of describing the color (think Provence) and the flavor profile – it is that savory, pungent component which some of the Rosé wines exhibit.
I will look, smell and taste for it from now on!
Great job Anatoli! Where did you get the W-S? Are you on their allocation list too?
Thanks, Jeff!
Well, no, I’m not on the list for Williams Selyem. And you don’t need to be. If you are willing to drive for about three hours up north, you can get pretty much everything which W-S produces ( and the place is very safe, I guarantee).
John Dyson, who owns Millbrook Winery in Millbrook, NY, also happens to be the owner of W-S. If you will visit Millbrook Winery, you are going to find tons of stuff from W-S there (their own wines are not bad either). BTW, on the way back, you can stop for a drink… : )
Ah, I forgot about the Millbrook connection! I used to teach at the school there and occasionally make it back to visit old friends….
I LOVE Rose’!!! My husband and I went to dinner in Chester last Saturday and ordered a bottle of French Rose’, so delicious and sooo nice and dry, perfection 🙂 I drink it all year and love a sparkling Rose’ ( I have no idea how you guys are putting that little accent over the e, lol)
I agree – Rosé is perfect all year around. As far as “Rosé” is concerned, I usually go and type the word in Google and if it has a French (or Spanish, or German, etc.) spelling, Google will show those variants. I then copy that word and keep copy and paste that appropriate word throughout the text. I think also WordPress editor allows to enter symbols from other alphabets through the special symbols menu.
On a PC, you hold down the ALT key and type 130. On a Mac, it is easier, hold down the Option key and type “e” (without the quotes), release the option key and type “e” again.
thanks, Jeff, this is a very useful info!
Nice writeup, Anatoli. Seems like writers on the coasts observe that everyone is drinking rosé, old news. I can assure you that most of our friends here in the midwest still shy away from it until we practically force them to at least give it a try!
Thanks, Jeff! I live on the coast (CT), and all the observations in the post are my personal observations. Rosé is still not as accepted as regular red and white wine, it still seasonal phenomena and considered second grade by many. And I’m sure situation in the middle is far worse… But it is definitely changing for the better.
I am broadening my horizons and attempting to drink more of this wine. Just had a wonderful glass yesterday and loved the strawberry notes.
Great! Rosé is definitely worth everybody’s attention
‘too easy to drink’ is right! Great post!
Thank you! I think those Rosé bottles have a tendency to disappear much faster than any other wine…