Wine of the week: Georges Vigouroux Pigmentum Rose 2015

The Pigmentum rose is value-driven $10 wine for the fall

So what if it’s October? The other great thing about the rose revolution, besides that people are drinking it, is that it’s available all year long. Which means you can find cheap, value-oriented rose like the Pigmentum rose and drink it whenever you want.

This vintage of the Pigmentum rose ($10, purchased, 12%) isn’t quite as Provencal as the 2014 – not as bright and zippy. It has more and softer red fruit and less minerality, though the back is bracing enough to support the fruit. This is not to say the wine is in any way sweet; rather, it tastes more like it’s made with malbec than last year’s wine did. Call it a vintage difference and marvel you can find one in a $10 rose from an almost unknown region of France, the Cotes du Lot in the southwestern part of the country.

But you know what I liked best about the Pigmentum rose? It’s nothing special, no Hall of Fame wine, nothing to wax poetic about. Instead, it shows just how much quality that rose, even ordinary rose, delivers for $10. In a wine world where mediocre wines command $30 and $40 and no one seems to mind, that’s the thing to wax poetic about.