IT’S TIME FOR THE ROSé TO BLOOM
The return of warm weather has most of the province flooding restaurant patios and home decks clutching lighter, fruitier, less substantially structured wine, and none is more popular right now than rosé.
It’s difficult to explain the rush to pink wine other than to say that once in a while the staid, somewhat unimaginative wine sector still has its moments, and right now, it’s rosé.
Some would point to it being a natural follow up to the revival of Provençal rosé. The southern French region that has been quietly making near colourless, premium priced, pinks forever but in recent years it has become fashionable again, selling as fast as they can ship it to market.
From Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s celebrity fuelled Chateau Miraval to the pink madness in The Hamptons, rosé has carved out a very particular niche among fickle wine drinkers. It’s seasonal, but in this case, seasonal means all summer only to be put away with your white shoes and belts after Labour Day.
I see the rosé revival as a seasonal backlash to the over-thetop, alcoholic, often too sweet, red monsters that rule wine shelves all winter.
Then there is the fading boomer demographic who once couldn’t get enough alcohol in their wine and are now at the stage, and an age, where less is more, and rosé, is appropriately less. Add to that the rise of women purchasing wine. In Britain they buy eight of 10 bottles consumed at home, so it is no surprise that the odd bottle of rosé is making its way into grocery baskets in place of some of those $15, 15 per cent reds from a warm, and getting warmer, region.
Then there is the current milieu of experimenting millennials, generation X and aging boomers, a market far more curious than the retail market that was buying wine 20 years ago. Well, you get the picture, rosé has cultivated a worldwide audience that in return has sparked a plethora of pink wines to choose.
Perhaps the best, unintended result of everybody and his dog making rosé, is that among the sea of too sweet and too soft pinks there are some very tasty and highly affordable bottles. I’m not opposed to the sweeter style, nor does it seem, are consumers. On a warm sunny day, you can chill them down and serve them on the patio where they will no doubt be a hit. That said, if you want a real rosé experience, you have to do your homework, and you have to be interested in pink wines that are more dry than sweet. Only then will you be able to experience the real delight of drinking rosé, especially with food.
For the weekend wine picks, we turned to the international market (we will get to B.C. later in the month) to look at five rosé labels that deliver for the price. From Sangiovese to Pinot Noir and just about every grape in between, they walk that fine line between being attractively fruity but carry enough acidity to be vibrant and fresh and, most important, food friendly. It’s the food factor that makes them most attractive; more specifically it’s rosé’s affinity to complement as opposed to obliterate the lighter foods of summer, and when needed, they can stand up to a roast chicken, grilled sausages and a wide variety of shellfish.
It used to be there was a debate about the colour of rosé being too dark, even too big in structure and weight. Lately, some have railed against the super light almost colourless pinks that are coming to the market. I’m a fan of the super light versions especially when they have the acidity and the vibrancy to light up your palate. It’s summer after all and the rosé is not the only thing that should chill out.