Tag Archives: rose

Mini-reviews 157: Even more rose reviews 2022

People toasting rose
Six more roses to try? Time for a celebration.

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the fourth Friday of each month. This month, six rose reviews as part of the blog’s 15th annual rose fest.

• The 15th annual Memorial Day and rose 2022 post

• Inazio Urruzola Rosado 2020 ($20, sample, 10.5%): A tremendously interesting pink from the Basque region in Spain made with almost unknown grapes. It’s sort of a cross between pink vinho verde and a more traditional rose. Maybe a bit sweet, maybe not. Maybe a bit fizzy, maybe a bit not. Berry and orange fruit, very bright. Imported by Winesellers Ltd

• Chateau Minuty M 2021 ($25, sample, 13%): It’s easy to write nice things about the $20 Inazio because it’s weird; it ‘s almost painful to admit that the $25 M is worth every penny. It’s a Provencal rose that hits all the notes — garrigue, barely ripe strawberry fruit, minerality, pale color, and all the rest. Highly recommended. Imported by Vintus

• Funckenhausen Dry Rose 2021 ($13/1-liter, sample, 13.5%): Solid, cherry-ish Argentine rose that offers fine value in larger bottle. Imported by Global Vineyard Importers

• Liquid Geography Rose 2021 ($12, sample, 12%): That mencia, a little known Spanish grape, can produce wine of this quality speaks to how wonderful wine is. Almost savory and orange, with tart strawberry fruit, and very bright and refreshing. Highly recommended . Imported by Ole & Obrigado

• Le Paradou Rose 2021 ($11, purchased, 12.5%): Simple, light and not too fruity (berries) French pink. It’s not as well done as the La Vielle, but perfectly fine for the back porch in the heat of summer. Imported by European Cellars

• Santi Infinito Rose 2021 ($11, purchased, 12%): Another top-notch Italian rose, with a little dark fruit hidden between the strawberries and red cherries. Long and almost savory. Highly recommended; Hall of Fame quality wine. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons

Photo: Melike Benli from Pexels

Memorial Day and rose 2022

Drinking rose
Bring on the pink — it’s the WC’s rose season preview..

The blog’s 15th annual Memorial Day and rose celebration — bring on the pink, because we need value and quality more than ever

Let’s gloss over the bad rose news as the blog celebrates its 15th annual Memorial Day rose extravaganza. Forget about the trumped up $18 pinks, both domestic and foreign, that try to get by on a label aimed at younger wine drinkers, because they’re supposed to be too stupid to know what rose is. And don’t worry about the continuing and all too depressing trend of calling a rose dry when it is noticeably sweet. These wines are mostly domestic, but even some imports think this is smart business.

Instead, let’s focus on yet another vintage of delicious and affordable roses — maybe not quite as affordable as in past years (tariff and pandemic), but still not the $20 that the wine business considers the cutoff for “affordable.” (Honestly. They told us that at a seminar last week — $60 is expensive, but $20 is affordable.)

In fact, I tasted so many worthy roses this year that picking which to include today and tomorrow was more difficult than ever. Who would have expected that? Missing are blog favorites Scaia and Mont Gravet; have not seen the 2021 versions yet. And don’t forget the blog’s rose primer and the rose category (from the drop down menu on the lower right), which lists 15 years of rose reviews.

Today, six standout roses – each highly recommended. Tomorrow, six more roses worth writing about:

• Bielet Pere et Fils Sabine Rose 2021 ($13, sample, 12.5%): Prices are all over the place once again for this legendary French pink. Can you believe $18 at one national retailer? This vintage has a touch more fresh berry fruit (raspberry?), but otherwise all one can expect from a rose at this price — or costing twice as much. Imported by Bieler et Fils

• Pedroncelli Dry Rose of Zinfandel 2021 ($15, sample, 13.9%): Rich, full, and balanced, with wonderful dark berry fruit from the zinfandel. This is not a razor-sharp, Provence style rose; rather, it’s much more California in style, and much welcome for that reason.

• Hecht & Bannier Rose 2020 ($13, purchased, 13%): I’m not the biggest fan of the Hecht, but the 2020 is a step up — more Provencal in style. That means almost stony, with wild strawberry fruit, and lots of garrigue. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons

• Zestos Rosado 2021 ($12, purchased, 12,5%): Maybe the best vintage ever of this always wonderful Spanish pink, taking garnacha where I didn’t think it could go. Almost an orange aroma, with subtle, barely ripe berry fruit, and stony finish that seems to go on forever. Imported by Ole & Obrigado

• Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rose 2021 ($10, purchased, 12.5%): This French pink is a tremendous value — strawberry and cherry fruit, full in the mouth, and quite refreshing. Imported by Polaner Selections

• Charles & Charles Rose 2021 ($12, sample, 12.5%): Fruitier this year, with an almost citrus zest aroma, followed with not quite tart cherry fruit. If the Sabine (made by one of the Charles’ here) is relatively consistent vintage to vintage, this Washington state pink changes every year. Which is a good thing.

More about Memorial Day and rose:
• Memorial Day and rose 2021
• Memorial Day and rose 2020
• Memorial Day and rose 2019
• Wine of the week: Les Dauphins Reserve Rose 2020

Photo: Taha Samet Arslan from Pexels

Wine of the week: La Vieille Ferme Rose 2021

La Vieille Ferme rose
La Vieille Ferme Rose 2021/$6-$15

Once again, the La Vielle reminds us that wine doesn’t have to be expensive, snotty, or stupid

What better way to kick off the blog’s 15h annual rose extravaganza than with this French pink, which delivers stunning quality for oh so little money? And has done so for years and years and years.

So buy a case – or even the 3-liter box, if it’s available where you live – and thank the Perrin family that runs La Vieille for their skill and professionalism, as well as their decision not to dumb down or focus group the wine. Because it certainly must be tempting to do so in a rose world where very, very ordinary pink costs $18 (and you know who you are) and isn’t nearly as well made as this.

First and foremost, know that the La Vieille ($8, sample, 13%) is dry, and not the faux dry that shows up in too many California roses when the wise guys leave in a touch of residual sugar because they’re smarter than we are. In addition, it’s clean, crispy, and stony, with barely ripe strawberry fruit. In other words, rose the way French rose should be.

One sign that the Perrin family knows what it’s doing: This vintage isn’t labeled Ventoux, the appellation that the wine has carried for years. Instead, it’s merely labeled France, which I assume was done to keep prices down but to keep up the quality.

Highly recommended, and should return to the Hall of Fame next January. And why not, when something this well made costs this little?

Imported by Vineyard Brands

It’s official: Cheap wine is irrelevant, part III

rose wine
“Is there anything better than $100 rose?”

If you thought the first two cheap wine is irrelevant posts showed how screwed up wine is, wait until you read this one

Just in time for the blog’s 15th annual rose extravaganza next week – 12 “must have” roses for this summer, from a group of leading “restaurant professionals.” And not one of them costs less than $46 on a restaurant wine list, and two cost $100 or more.

For rose? Rose??? Rose?????

Yet there it is, from one of the wine business’ most important trade websites: These are roses “that sommeliers and beverage directors across the U.S. clamor for. … what they’re stocking up on as rosé season kicks off once again.”

Obviously, retail pricing wouldn’t be nearly as ridiculous; those that list for about $50 would cost about $35 at your local wine shop. But it’s not like $35 isn’t ridiculous, either. How many of us are going to pay $35 for a bottle of rose?

In this, one more piece of evidence – after this and this — that the wine business doesn’t much care about those of us who aren’t the one percent. Consider: I can get a bottle of actual Champagne from a good producer at one of Dallas’ leading high-end restaurants for $90. I love rose, but if I’m going to spend that much money, I’ll buy the bubbly. Who wouldn’t?

So what’s going on here? Two things, I think:

First, restaurants are restaurants, and if the pandemic didn’t change restaurant wine pricing, nothing will. I’m supposed to talk to someone who did a study about the pandemic’s effect on restaurant wine this week, and I’ll be sure to ask about these prices. They seem counter-intuitive if you’re trying to lure diners back.

Second, snobbery. It pains me to write this, after all the years I’ve spent trying to de-snobify wine. But that seems to be where we are in the second decade of the 21st century. It’s hip and cool or whatever to put a $100 rose on a wine list, and those of who don’t understand that it’s hip and cool or whatever don’t matter.

Photo: “Boyfriend and girlfriend drinking wine closeup. Pink colors for Valentine day” by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Rose season 2022 preview

rose 2022
“The WC is right — where are all those $10 roses?”

This year should be better than last, but still expect higher prices and supply snafus

Two years of pandemic-related supply shortages should ease a little as we approach the start of 2022’s rose season. The blog’s 15th annual rose post will run on May 26 to mark the occasion.

Which is the good news. The bad news? Expect to pay more for your favorite pink wine – not a lot more, but just enough to notice the price increase.

I talked to a variety of retailers and importers over the past couple of weeks, and that was pretty much the consensus. Among their thoughts:

• Shipping remains an issue. One rose sample, which I always get around the beginning of April, won’t ship until the end of this month. “It’s still definitely not normal,” says Charles Bieler, whose roses include blog favorites Charles & Charles from Washington state and the French Bieler et Fils Sabine,

• Most of what we do get will arrive over the next couple of months, and that will be that, says Todd Nelson, vice president of marketing and PR for importer Winesellers, Ltd., which handles France’s Mont Gravet, another blog favorite. “When the brands are sold out, they’ll be sold out,” he emailed me. “Fewer brands will bring in late arrivals.”

• Prices will be higher, said almost everyone — $10 wines up to $12, $12 wines up to $14, and so forth. Interestingly, says Nelson, roses costing $20 and more haven’t fared as well over the past couple of years, and it looks like producers won’t make as many at those prices.

• Why higher prices? Inflation, certainly, as well as glass and cardboard shortages (used for wine boxes). There’s also a sense, one California producer said, that demand has increased for cheaper grapes from high-end producers, who are trying to cut costs. Which, ironically, means higher prices for $10 wines, since that raises the price of the cheaper grapes used to make those wines.

Wine to drink when you’re waiting for an ice storm

ice storm
If Dallas still had street cars, this is probably what today would look like.

Because that’s what we do in Dallas every February

Feb. 4 update: So far, so good. We got through Thursday with a surprisingly few number of power outages reported in the Dallas area. If we can make it through today, the forecast is favorable for the weekend and early next week.

The Wine Curmudgeon is writing this on Monday, since I don’t expect to have electricity on Thursday and Friday. That’s because we’re expecting our annual February ice storm.

If nothing else, the company that distributes power told us not to worry. And we know what comes after that, don’t we, Gov. Abbott?

So the WC has filled the car up with gas, charged all the battery packs, phones, and laptops, baked bread, and laid in the requite supplies. That means lots of batteries; an extra hoodie for Churro, the blog’s associate editor; a couple of battery-powered lanterns; and, of course, cheap wine. Hopefully, I won’t regret not buying a generator.

Interestingly, I’m not the only one who has pondered cheap wine during an ice storm and blackout. Lauren Daniels, the food editor at the Dallas Observer (for whom I write an occasional wine piece) emailed me yesterday asking for a suggestion to run on the weekly’s website.

So here are three wines I stocked up on that I didn’t tell Lauren about:

• Umani Ronchi Podere 2020 ($11, purchased, 13%): This Italian red, from the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo region, is a long-time WC favorite. This vintage is a touch more tart than usual, but still has what it should – cherry fruit, some earth, and spice on the finish. Needs food, but that’s not a problem during a power failure. Imported by Vineyard Brands

• Domaine de Pajot Les Quatre Cépages 2020 ($12, purchased, 11.5%): What would a crisis at WC World Headquarters be without a Gascon white wine to fall back on? This one uses all four gapes – sauvignon blanc, ugni blanc, colombard, and gros manseng – in the blend. There’s lots of citrus fruit, though not as much white grapiness as I like, and it’s fresh through and through. So simple but not stupid. Imported by Polaner Selections

• Marqués de Cáceres Rosado 2020 ($9, purchased, 13.5%): This supermarket Spanish rose is almost always a fine value. It’s a little softer and more fruity than I would have thought, with what almost seems like a dollop of strawberry in the middle. But that’s hardly a problem – crisp, fresh and ready to drink. And yes, rose in in the middle of an ice storm – I won’t have to chill it ahead of time, will I? Imported by Vineyard Brands

Photo: “Abandoned streetcars after ice storm in December, 1942.” by Ross Dunn

More wine for bad weather:
• Wine to drink during rolling power blackouts
• Wine to drink when the power goes out, 2014 edition
• Jerry Jones, wine, and bad weather

 

 

 

Wine and food pairings 15: Southwestern-style stew with guacamole and pico de gallo

Artus Wolfaerts - Man Cooking Sausages
I’m cooking these sausages because the WC, once again, neglected to take a picture for this blog post.

The Wine Curmudgeon pairs wine with some of his favorite recipes in this occasional feature. This edition: three wines with a Southwestern-style stew, made with odd cuts of beef and pork.

The pandemic left me with some odd meat in the freezer – a package of beef short ribs with just three ribs, and what are you supposed to do with just three short ribs? There were also two of the saddest thinly sliced pork chops on record, maybe one-quarter of an inch thick at the thickest.

In other words, nothing I could make by itself that would actually be worth eating. So why not cook them together?

And the blog’s Southwestern-style stew was born.

Obviously, you can make this with just short ribs or just pork (shoulder, certainly) or even beef chuck, but it turned out exactly as I hoped. What makes this work is turning the pan drippings into a gravy with an immersion blender. You don’t lose any of the flavor and there’s no sauce-making aggravation.

I served the stew over Israeli couscous and topped each serving with a scoop of pico de gallo and guacamole. Store bought is OK, but it’s better and not that much work to make your own.

Click here to download or print a copy of the recipe. What wines to pair? Fruity reds to stand up to the spices, plus rose, because that’s one of the things rose does so well:

• Henry Fessy Gamay Noir 2020 ($12, purchased, 13.5%): I served this with the stew and it was spot on. This vintage is a little spicier and less ripe than the 2019, but still well done and enjoyable, with quality red fruit. Imported by Louis Latour

• Santa Julia Malbec Organica Rose 2020 ($10, purchased, 13.5%): This Argentine pink, a long-time blog favorite, is as it always is — crisp, a bit tart, a bit stony, and with strawberry fruit. Imported by Winesellers Ltd.

• Funckenhausen Red Blend 2020 ($15/1-liter, purchased, 13.9%): Funckenhausen, an Argentine producer, does several 1-liter wines made for everyday drinking. And it’s not damning with faint praise to say this wine, mostly malbec, is not the best; rather, it’s still professional and well made and perfect for this dish. Some berry fruit, a little tart, and not too soft. Imported by Global Vineyard Importers

Blog associate editor Churro contributed to this post.

More about wine and food pairings:
• Wine and food pairings 14: Mom’s chicken parmigiana
• Wine and food pairings 13: Crawfish etouffee
• Wine and food pairings 12: Hot dogs

Photo: “Artus Wolfaerts – Man Cooking Sausages” by irinaraquel is licensed under CC PDM 1.0

Slider photo: “Rome Elite Event: wine, food and nice people” by Yelp.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0