A Rosé by Any Other Name . . .

Written by Dallas C. Galvin

The butterflies of the wine world

“If you desire good wines, these five things are praised in them: strength, beauty, fragrance, coolness and freshness.” – “The Regimen of Health,” University of Salerno School of Medicine (c.1184)

Marvelous, isn’t it, how the intensity of summer, with its heat and strong colors, makes it the ideal season for rosé wines? So bright and spontaneous, rosés are like the butterflies of the wine world. By winter we will dismiss their delicacy and flowery aromas as frivolous and their pigmentation as washed out, but come the dog days of summer, few quaffs appear so welcomingly gorgeous to the sweat-drenched eye or so refreshing to the thirsting tongue as a good rosé. They are every hostess’s best pal from June through mid September.

Rosés start their march to market in late April and May. We are rarely interested in them then, but by summer the best wine stores will greet their customers with long chorus lines of rosés from a host of countries. And the rosés, like their namesakes in our gardens, will display every imaginable shade of the color red in their clear glass bottles, much to our delight and amusement. Suddenly, their range of hues, their perfumes, and their refreshing youth all seem perfectly designed to resuscitate us—if only by suggesting the golden languor of a late-August afternoon.

Men, especially those of a certain age, typically balk at the idea of drinking rosés. They perceive them to be cloyingly sweet and weak. “Girly-girl drinks” is the usual eponym. Like most clichés, there’s a bit of historical truth there, but sickening sweetness is rarely in play these days. Where once Americans only had access to the Portuguese Mateus (remember those green ceramic bocksbeutel bottles with the pretty pink labels?) and Lancers or blush faux-Chablis from California, rosés are now coming into America from the traditional areas: the southern Rhône Valley, Provence, Alsace, and the Loire, as well as Northern Italy, Sicily, the Rioja and the Duero in Spain, and suddenly New Zealand and interesting young vineyards in California, New York and Washington.

Vintners often characterize rosés as essentially white wines: their taste is dry to off-dry; they are refreshingly crisp; they are naturally aromatic with good acid content and low tannins. That means they are perfectly heavenly with fish, salads, and light pasta dishes. Because they are not aged in oak and do not have much contact with the lees, the oak monster that so dogs California Chardonnays and gives them a heavy, buttery quality is blessedly absent from rosés. This is a distinct advantage in summer.

Rosés are versatile, too. Because they gather a small, carefully calculated quantity of tannins from the skins of the grapes during the early part of their fermentation (the longer grape juice has contact with the skins, the deeper the color and the stronger the tannins), rosés marry surprisingly well with red meats such as barbecued ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and hamburgers. Whoopee news for summer parties and beachside dining! And more, because they walk the line between reds and whites but can possess a fair amount of residual fruit, many rosés work nicely with spicy foods such as Cuban roasted chickens, tandooris, and Thai foods. Best of all, rosés are inexpensive, with upper prices running about $35 and most bottles falling in the $8 to $16 range.

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