Maybe it is warm when you are reading this! Maybe not! Either way, friend, let us not wait any longer—it is the season for rosé. If you think of pink sweetness with notes of headache, be advised that the ignominious era of blush wine has passed; rosés today are, by and large, crisp and dry and taste exactly like summertime. Doug Nufer, wine-hawker at European Vine Selections on 15th Avenue East, advises that $10 is a perfectly good amount to spend on a bottle of rosé (that’s $2.50 a glass). I advise that you look for a lighter-colored rosé—the pretty peachy ones taste better than the bright-pink strumpets. Chill well and (crossing fingers) enjoy in the park. (The store, now, $10)

6 replies on “Rosé”

  1. It’s shocking how expensive rose has gotten in the past few years since it started getting popular. Tavel has always been $$, but you used to be able to find all kinds of great stuff for $6-10. It’s getting harder. Most of that is the collapsing dollar against the French Euro, but still.

    There are some decent WA roses. Basically I just look for alcohol less than 13% and pray it’s not been oaked to death; WA wineries love their oak, alas. But roses still aren’t taken too seriously, which is good — nobody’s making 16% bombs. And they’re usually acidic enough, though I’ll take a good Riesling or Muscadet or Gruner Veltliner as often as not.

    I still have a powerful affection for my very first rose, Bonny Doon’s Vin Gris de Cigare, which blew my brains out with strawberries and acid a decade ago, and is even better today, though it has risen out of the sweet spot on price (usually $15).

    You should read Jamie Ivey’s “Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure” if you like your roses pale. It’s quite funny.

  3. @2, no, YOU are crap. Anything in your mouth instantly becomes feces. Including words.

    And you know nothing at all about Beaujolais, I am quite certain. Or anything else, for that matter.

  4. My current favorite is rose’ Vinho Verde – it has a very slight effervescence that I really love. There’s also a dry pinot noir rose’ from Toad Hollow winery in California, Eye of the Toad, that I adore.

    I can’t drink Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Nellie’s Garden rose’ at all. It just does not taste good to me. If I can’t find the vinho verde, and I’m out of my quarterly shipment of Eye of the Toad, then I look for Menage A Trois rose’ or Goats Will Roam.

  5. @4, you can’t go wrong with Vinho Verde on a hot day. 8 or 9%, slightly fizzy, maybe $6 or $8, a tarty little treat, whether white or pink. I even tried a bottle of the infamous Mateus rose a while back — it’s a pink vinho verde in everything but name, with enough acid and fizz to offset the overdone sugar — and it was not bad at all, not for backyard quaffing, or swilling, as the case may be. Ahem.

    Not as good as a pink Prosecco, but then few things are. Note: two bottles might be too much, especially if your host brings out the good tequila afterwards. Take a cab.

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