Tag Archives: rose wine

My lunch with Provence

Provence roseRegular visitors here know how much the Wine Curmudgeon loves rose, and how much I want to share that enthusiasm with the rest of the wine world. Hence my excitement to attend a Provence rose lunch this week, given that that Provence (located in southern France on the Mediterranean) is to rose what Napa Valley is to cabernet sauvignon and Burgundy is to chardonnay.

And I was not disappointed. Rose accounts for 80 percent of Provence’s production, and its producers have learned a thing or two in the 1,500 years they’ve been making it. The region’s grapes are cultivated specifically to make rose, and not to make something else where the rose is an afterthought. And there’s even a rose research center — call it the UC-Davis for pink wine.

Best yet, Provencal rose is still cheap, something that the lunch’s host, Wines of Provence, emphasized at every opportunity. Talk about being in pink wine heaven.

The best wines we had, and one of them wasn’t even rose (prices are suggested retail, which will probably be a couple of dollars less in the store):

? Domaine Houchart Rose 2013 ($15, sample, 12.5%): One of the best roses I’ve ever had, with depth and a roundness that most pink wines at this price, no matter how well made, rarely have. Not too much fresh red berry fruit, crisp, and bone dry. Chill this, and you’ll never want another wine all summer.

? La Vidaubanaise Le Provencal 2013 ($15, sample, 12%): A notch below the Houchart, but that’s hardly a criticism. More fresh red berries, nice acid balance, and even a little melon on the back. Another terrific value.

? Chateau de Berne Terres de Berne 2013 ($20, sample, 13%): It speaks to the wine’s quality that I’m including it here, since it’s not $10. A flowery aroma, almost white fruit flavors, some spice (believe it or not), and so fresh it was hard to believe. Availability may be limited.

? Rimaresque Cru Classe Rose 2013 ($24, sample, 13%): Rose for people who think they need to spend more than $10 for wine, with a rich mouth feel, minerality on the back, and a little more heft, given that cabernet sauvignon is one of the eight grapes in the blend.

? Domaine Houchart Rouge 2011 ($15, sample, 14.5%): How a red wine with this much alcohol can be this light and enjoyable is apparently one of those things you pick up in 15 centuries of winemaking. A blend that shows off its grenache and carignan, with cherry fruit and some spiciness. Highly recommended, and don’t be afraid to chill it a bit.

Memorial Day and rose 2014

Memorial Day and rose
One can never have too many roses.

The annual Memorial Day and rose post is one of the Wine Curmudgeon’s favorites, a post that has appeared every year since I started writing the blog. And why not? Rose is more popular than ever before (for which I will take some small credit), and it’s the quintessential great cheap wine: tasty and food friendly. It’s almost impossible to find a badly made $10 rose.

The blog ?s rose primer discusses styles, why rose is dry, and how it gets its pink color. The blog ?s rose category offers more suggestions, and the following will get you started for this year’s Memorial Day and rose extravaganza:

? Bodegas Palacio Rioja Milflores 2013 ($11, purchased, 13.5%): Quality Spanish rose that overcomes goofy bottle hype — extolling the “fruit and flower-filled fields of Rioja” — to offer excellent value. Crisp and aromatic, with some cranberry fruit and even a little orange on the finish.

? Penya C tes Catalanes Rose 2012 ($9, purchased, 13.5%): One more in a long succession of solid, winning roses from the south of France, this from the Roussillion and made with mostly grenache. Look for some strawberry fruit, but also a stony finish.

? Pedroncelli Dry Ros of Zinfandel 2013 ($12, sample,13.2%): Another quality effort from Pedroncelli, with lots of juicy red fruit. Not as crisp as other roses or as it has been in the past, and made more in the style of the old Toad Hollow. Which is quite a compliment, actually.

? Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Ros 2013 ($10, sample, 12.8%): This South African rose is another example of terrific $10 rose. It seems to have lots more strawberry fruit this year, though it’s still dry. But I’m guessing that much of that fruit will become more integrated in the wine as it ages in the bottle.

More about Memorial Day and rose:
? Memorial Day and rose 2013
? Memorial Day and rose 2012
? Wine of the week: Alliance Loire La Clotiere Rose 2012
? Wine of the week: Chateau de Campuget Rose 2012

Wine of the week: Georges Vigouroux Pigmentum Rose 2012

Vigouroux Pigmentum rose 2012What better way to start the new year and the release of the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame than with a cheap and delicious rose? And from southwestern France, too, home of so much great $10 wine.

The Pigmentum ($10, purchased, 13%) is made with malbec, which gives it a style somewhere between a fruity, strawberry-ish New World rose and and the more traditional and tart French style. But it’s still balanced and food friendly, and well worth drinking again. In fact, in most years, it would have made the hall of fame. This year, though, given all the tremendous candidates, it had to wait. This, apparently, is not an uncommon problem with halls of fame.

The Pigmentum is made by a French wine company, Atrium Vigouroux, which specializes in cheap wine. The rose is for sale in Europe through their site (ah, the joys of unrestricted direct shipping) for ?5 a bottle, and the company’s white blend (which I also like) is only
?4.90. Both work out to less than $8 a bottle. Is it any wonder that those of us who pay attention to these things still see the French wine model as worthy of admiration?

Fourth of July wine 2013

Fourth of July wine 2013
I’m drinking a less alcoholic, less tannic red wine because it’s hot out. But I can’t show my face, because that’s not a manly wine choice.

It ?s hot. It ?s sticky. So how many of you will drink the biggest, most tannic, most alcoholic red wine possible to celebrate July 4?

Which, of course, is fine with the Wine Curmudgeon, since I believe that everyone should drink what they want, and rules be damned. But, if you don ?t mind a suggestion, live dangerously. Try something lighter and, dare I say, more pleasurable ? a porch wine, even. Because the only thing I ask is that wine drinkers be willing to try something different.

Which leads to these suggestion, after the jump:

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Rose basics

Rose basicsRose isn’t red or white wine, but something all its own. Keep these rose basics in mind when you buy rose:

• Rose isn’t white zinfandel (or white merlot or whatever). Roses are pink wines made with red grapes and they aren’t sweet. Why are they pink? Because the red grape skins are left in the fermenting grape juice just long enough to color the wine. There is a second, much less common method called bleeding, in which wine is siphoned from freshly pressed red wine.

• Rose’s fruit flavors are mostly red berries (think strawberry or cranberry) or watermelon. They should be served chilled, and they pair pretty much with any food, including beef and barbecue. Rose was made for Sunday afternoon, sitting on the back porch, rose in hand, burgers on the grill.

• Don’t buy old rose. Look for vintages that are a year old, and at most two. Roses are not made to age, and should be fresh and flavorful. The color in older vintages starts to fade, like paper that yellows. This isn’t as hard and fast a rule as it used to be, since so much rose is os much better made than the old days. But it’s still something to keep in mind.

• Rose styles vary by country (though these are becoming less noticeable as winemaking becomes more international). Spanish wines are going to be bone dry with less fruit flavor. French roses are not quite as dry as the Spanish, but they usually don’t have a lot of fruit flavor (and rose from Provence is among the best in the world). Some U.S. wines are so full of strawberry flavor that they seem sweet, but that’s your taste buds playing a trick on you.

Memorial Day and rose, 2011

Memorial Day weekend means it’s time for the annual rose post — where you won’t have to spend much more than $10 to have a good time.

Surprisingly, despite the weak dollar and the passage of all that time, that price point hasn ?t changed since the Wine Curmudgeon started writing an annual rose piece almost 10 years ago. There are still dozens of terrific roses that cost $10 or so from all over the world. The one thing that has changed? The quality of rose keeps getting better, and it ?s unusual to find a poorly made rose (something that wasn ?t necessarily true 10 years ago).

What you need to know about rose — after the jump:

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Wine of the week: Toad Hollow Pinot Noir Rose 2010

Wine of the week: Toad Hollow Pinot Noir Rose 2010The Wine Curmudgeon appreciated this wine the first time he tasted it, in those long ago days of newspaper wine columns. It’s cheap, it’s consistent, and it comes from a producer that cares about the quality of its inexpensive wine. What’s not to like?

However, I have neglected to review the Toad Hollow ($10, purchased) in the blog’s three-plus years of existence (though it is an original member of the $10 Hall of Fame). So let’s remedy this now as we celebrate rose wine on the blog this week; my annual rose preview will run tomorrow.

Look for lots of strawberry and acid to complement the fruit, which has always been a Toad Hollow trademark. The wine seemed a bit sweeter this vintage than in the past couple, though that may have been because it had not been in the bottle long enough for all of its bits to come together (a wine geek would describe a young wine like that as a little shocky).

Update: I did a little checking, and the wine is noticeably sweeter than usual this year. That’s disappointing, because this has always been one of the great dry roses produced in the U.S. It probably won’t stay in the Hall of Fame.