Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
It’s rosé season; drink these bottles year-round
I don’t need to tell you that rosé season has begun. The bottles are crowding the seasonal displays in wine shops, the days are still growing longer and the get-it-done determination of the cooler months is giving way to a summer laxity.
Rosé has become synonymous with summer drinking. Though I have long recommended rosé as a year-round option, I’m not immune to the magnetic attraction that occurs after Memorial Day.
Outdoor dining and warm weather connote the Mediterranean, which, if rosé did not actually originate there, is nonetheless its home in popular culture.
The contrarian articles will no doubt soon arrive telling us the rosé boom is passé. Don’t believe it.
Feeling the rosé spirit, I went shopping in an array of New York retail stores and picked these exceptional bottles of rosé. They ranged in price from $13 to $32.
These rosés are all delightful. Most are versatile enough to drink with friends on a stoop, roof or wherever you gather, or to accompany a meal. I’ve listed them from least to most expensive.
Viña Zorzal Navarra Garnacha Rosado 2021, 13.5%, $13:
Viña Zorzal perennially produces great values in wine. The three Sanz brothers, who own Zorzal, farm organically in the Navarra region in northern Spain. This pale ruby rosado is made entirely out of old-vine garnacha. It’s dry, lively and savory; full of raspberry fruit, with underlying stony mineral flavors; and excellent with cheese and crudités.
Château de Manissy Tavel Cuvée des Lys 2020, 14%, $20:
The dark, powerful rosés of Tavel in the Southern Rhône Valley are not everybody’s mouthful. They are more appropriate with a meal than as an aperitif by the water. But this bottle is an excellent example of a style of dark, potent rosé that was once popular but is a bit lost in today’s pale rosé world. This wine, sort of a pale maraschino color, is 60% grenache, 30% clairette and 10% syrah. It’s dry, with just a suggestion of fruit and floral flavors and plenty of minerality.
Fabien Jouves Vin de France Rosé À Table!!! 2021, 12%, $23:
Fabien Jouves makes some of my favorite Cahors wines under the Mas del Périé label. Under his own name he produces a range of natural wines like À Table!!!, essentially an invitation to come eat, which you will want to do with this dark rosé. It’s made of malbec, the grape of Cahors, along with two other grapes common in southwestern France, tannat and merlot, all farmed biodynamically. It’s fresh and deliciously complex, with earthy aromas and flavors of red fruits and flowers.
AT Roca Clàssic Penedès Rosat Reserva 2018, 12%, $23:
AT Roca makes excellent sparkling wines in Catalonia, the wines that used to collectively be called cava until many of the best producers stopped using the term, wary of its connotation of mass production. Roca has opted instead for Clàssic Penedès, an identification for sparkling wines with strict regulations, including a requirement for organic viticulture. This rosat (Catalan for rosado, which is Spanish for rosé) is made like a Champagne, with a second fermentation in the bottle. It’s bone dry, floral and highly refreshing.
Thibaud Boudignon Rosé de Loire 2021, 12.5%, $24:
Over the last decade, Thibaud Boudignon has become almost a cult Savennières producer whose superb wines have risen in price because of the ceaseless demand.
This pale rosé, on the other hand, is reasonably priced. It’s made from organically farmed cabernet franc with a small amount of grolleau, a red grape rarely seen outside the Loire. It’s got floral and mineral flavors, with a touch of bell pepper just for interest’s sake.
Idlewild North Coast Flora & Fauna Rosé 2021, 11.8%, $25:
This small producer in Sonoma makes wines inspired by the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Flora & Fauna is a blend of nebbiolo, dolcetto, barbera and a tiny bit of grignolino, all grapes one would expect to find in northern Italy, not so much in Northern California. This pretty, dark cinnabar-colored wine is fresh and bright, lighthearted but textured enough to pair well with food, whether brook trout, for one, or pasta with mushrooms.
Day Wines Rogue Valley Babycheeks Rosé 2021, 12%, $29:
Brianne Day makes excellent pinot noirs and chardonnays from the Willamette Valley as well as a range of surprising wines from other parts of Oregon, like this bright, apple-fresh rosé from the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon. It’s a blend of southwestern French grapes, including malbec, tannat and cabernet franc, and is fresh, lively and delicious.
Château Pradeaux Bandol Rosé 2021, 13.5%, $29:
Provence produces oceans of pale, insipid rosé with little distinctiveness.
This is not one of them. Bandol Rosé and Château Pradeaux have rarely been short on character. Pradeaux, one of the oldest of the old-school Bandol producers, makes this brick-orange rosé out of mourvèdre, with about 25% cinsault added. It tastes of licorice and herbs and should improve with a year or two of aging.
Montenidoli Toscana Rosato Canaiuolo 2021, 12.5%, $30:
For 50 years, Elisabetta Fagiuoli has been making wine on a hillside near the town of San Gimignano in Tuscany, farming organically all the while on limestone soils. This pale coral rosato is made of the canaiolo grape, more common as a blending ingredient with sangiovese in Chianti. The wine is textured and versatile with food, with aromas and flavors of red berries along with fine mineral flavors.
A Tribute to Grace Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Rosé of Grenache 2021, 12.3%, $30:
Angela Osborne makes terrific, expressive grenaches from vineyards all over California from her home base in Santa Barbara. This rich, gutsy, salmon-colored rosé, made entirely out of grenache, is textured and full of fresh fruit, licorice and herbal flavors. Yet it is also focused and refined. If that sounds like it plays both ways, well, yes, it does. This will stand up to a burger.
Railsback Frères Santa Ynez Valley Les Rascasses Rosé 2021, 11.9%, $32:
Lyle and Eric Railsback worked in many sides of the wine business before starting this label together in 2015. Les Rascasses — scorpionfish in French — is their tribute to Lulu Peyraud, the legendary matriarch of Domaine Tempier, which they say produced their favorite Bandol rosé. This rosé is made in the Provençal style, a blend of mourvèdre, cinsault and carignan. It’s light and pleasing, with flavors of licorice, herbs and flowers. The wine makes it easy to conjure up a Provençal setting, preferably with a tribute to Lulu’s bouillabaisse as well.