Maybe it’s because our days of real summer have been so spotty this year, but I have found myself drawn more and more to rosé wines on our rare hot, sunny afternoons and evenings. Meant to drink chilled — but not ice cold — rosés can be equally enjoyable on their own or with food.
Recently, our wine club met, with rosés as our theme. Each individual or couple brings a bottle of wine and appropriate food dish to our symposiums, as I like to call them. We sampled eight different rosés and had a glorious selection of dishes, ranging from tiny smoked white cheddar-stuffed buns to chicken wings to key lime pie. The wines came from Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the United States and, of course, Canada. Some were delightfully aromatic and full-bodied, others were thin and watery. A couple were sparkling, one was made from Merlot grapes and another from Tempranillo and Grenache grapes. Some were made from Pinot Noir.
Rosé wines tend to aspire to being the best of both worlds — with light red colours and tastes more like white wines. The making of rosé wines has more in common with the production of white wines than red ones. The main difference is that the juice that results from crushing the grapes is kept in contact with the skins for several days, allowing some colour to be imparted to the liquid. If you surmise that red (or, more accurately, purple or black) grapes are used to make rosé wines you would be correct.
A mistake too easily made with a rosé is to serve it too cold. All liquids become less aromatic and flavourful when the get colder and the trick is to find a temperature balance that makes the wine thirst quenching without sacrificing taste. When I take a bottle from the cellar it is about 65 degrees F. I then put in the fridge for 10 minutes or so, just enough to make it feel cool to the touch. Serving it colder might be appropriate if the wine is to be sipped on its own, without food, because one isn’t making an attempt to balance the flavours of the rosé with those of the food. As always, it really comes down to personal preference, though.
One of my favourite wine stories of the year comes from Bob Johnson, co-owner of Creston’s Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery. The winery got a message from Vines, a Canadian magazine, requesting photos of their rosé bottles, which were duly provided. When Johnson got a copy of the June-July issue, featuring rosés on the cover, he turned to the story and was disappointed not to find Baillie-Grohman’s label among the 19 bottles in photographs illustrating the story. Only later did he see his bottle in the two-page lead-in to the article, sitting on ice in a clear glass ice bucket. While the glass throws the label slightly out of focus, the effect is stunning and Johnson is very happy with the positioning of his product.
Rosé wines tend to fall into about the same price range as white wines and it is fun to pick out a bottle from liquor store shelves on a whim, perhaps being guided only by the label. Through trial and error, one or two gems will surely emerge.
Of the eight wines sampled by our wine club, the members I talked to all thought the Baillie-Grohman version was the best of the lot. With its attractive salmon colour, the 2010 vintage (made from Pinot Noir grapes) has strawberry, raspberry and cranberry notes, with a surprisingly pleasant hint of rhubarb. It has a full body and a long, pleasant finish.
Unfortunately, Creston’s Skimmerhorn Winery wasn’t represented among the bottles our members brought, so I can’t comment on it right now. It’s an oversight I plan to rectify by making some purchases there today. The coming weekend weather forecast calls for rosé afternoons.
Lorne Eckersley is publisher of the Creston Valley Advance. He can be reached at publisher@crestonvalleyadvance.ca.