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WT101 - Think pink
There could hardly be a better time for our Wine Tasting 101 forum to reprise the examination of rosé wines ... fresh, crisp and pink. The purpose of WT101, you'll recall, is to encourage wine lovers to explore and learn about wine in association with peers, trying something different every month and encouraging each other to practice the art of writing down tasting reports by sharing our impressions in a civil online environment. We've found this process a powerful way to improve wine confidence and learn.
Of course rosé wine is made from red grapes. Sometimes - most notably in Champagne - red and white wines are blended together; but in the more common process, called blanc de noirs ("white from blacks"), red grapes are pressed to extract their juice, but then the grape skins (which impart the wine's color) are removed before they've had time to "bleed" more than a pale-pink tinge into the wine. Rosé wines can vary dramatically in color, from the palest pink to copper or salmon to hues nearly as dark as lighter red wines. The French have almost as many words for it as the Eskimos purportedly use for snow, including a few that occasionally turn up in English winespeak: "vin gris" ("gray wine"), "oeil de perdrix" ("partridge eye") and "pelure d'oignon" ("onion skin"). With rare exceptions (perhaps fashioned for the American market), most French and other European rosés ("Rosato" in Italian and "Rosado" in Spanish) are bone-dry and acidic, crisp wines that go nicely with light summer fare ... Salade Niçoise is a classic. But the pink-wine category is further confused by the mostly American "blush" wine category, White Zinfandel and its cousins, which tend to be slightly to seriously sweet and low in acidity, a style that most wine enthusiasts shun but that's popular with those who want a smooth, sippable wine that's neither dry nor tart. Fanciers of dry rosé, on the other hand, point out that blanc de noirs yields a light, fresh and fruity wine that's easy to slurp, with a beautiful color that further enhances the wine's appeal. Fair enough. This month I'm willing to give it a try.
It's easy to participate in WT101: Try a rosé wine - or several - then check in to the forum,
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TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. For today's tasting, let's start right in with a fresh (2004) rosé from the Languedoc, a pink wine that pushes the envelope with a forward, blowsy fruitiness that's almost over the top for my personal tastes, but with a crisp, lemony backbone that saves it from wannabe-blush status.
Chateau Grande Cassagne 2004 Costières de Nimes Rosé ($11.99)
Bright salmon pink with a hint of copper, this wine offers a good demonstration of the pretty colors of rosé. A blast of exuberant, forward mixed-berry fruit is impressive but almost bizarre for my tastes, so potent that it almost communicates an impression of artificial flavorings, with a distinct "bubble gum" character that reminds me of nothing so much as Kool-Aid or a Big Red soft drink. Really not my cuppa, but it's better on the palate, raspberry and strawberry and cherry, almost sweet on the first impression but with sufficient lemon-squirt acidity to dry it out in the long, berry-scented finish. With all that sweet fruit on a sturdy backbone, it might make a good "bridge" wine for a taster seeking to shift from "blush" wines to more serious rosé. U.S. importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C. (May 2, 2005) FOOD MATCH: That in-your-face fruit was a little too candied to make an ideal match with ossobuco bianco. Better, I think, as an aperitif than a food wine. VALUE: The Euro-dollar exchange has pushed this one past the $10 mark; I'd like it better for less. WHEN TO DRINK: With rare exceptions - and this is not one of them - rose´ wine is best drunk up young and fresh. Enjoy it this summer, then wait for the 2005.
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Wednesday, May 4, 2005
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