11 SHADES OF ROSÉ….MUCH BETTER THAN 50 SHADES OF GREY

We opened ten bottles of rosé within 24 hours last week. Good friends David and Mark were visiting their old stomping grounds here in Portsmouth. Since we had enjoyed so many rosés while we were together in Provence in 2008, we made those pink wines, now very trendy, our theme for a tasting.

I’ve always been drawn to a good theme, a propensity that no doubt stems from growing up with my mother who had one for every rendezvous, be it birthdays—Huckleberry Hound, Raggedy Ann, The Munsters, Pink Elephants from Loch’s Bakery—or dinner parties—Mexican, seafood, San Diego Chargers. If my mother couldn’t get every aspect of the theme to fall in line, she would apologize as if the event was hopelessly inadequate.

In the case of wine tastings, themes are easy to come by, fun, and usually the most instructive approach to tasting wine. For example, do you like Pinot Noir? How about tasting Pinot Noirs from around the world? The same grape in different terroirs? You may be familiar with Pinots from California and Oregon, but how about comparing those wines with some from the Burgundy region of France—where some of the finest red wines in the world are made from Pinot Noir grapes? Add a bottle from New Zealand and that is a terrific wine tasting!

Rosé is made from red grapes. Which red grapes depends on the region where it is produced, but commonly used grapes are Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo, and Pinot Noir. Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are also used. Several other grapes, in very small quantities, are often blended in, particularly in Provence. Aside from Provence, rosé is produced in Spain, Portugal, Argentina, South Africa, and in the United States, most notably Oregon and California. In a tasting, depending on how it is set up, one may hone in on a comparison of grapes, châteaux, regions, and vintages. These pink wines are a terrific theme!

Warm summers call out for rosé wines in our house and apparently in more and more households around the world—the demand for rosé wine has soared in recent years. Provence, where rosé is enjoyed year-round, is the largest producer of rosé and has long been the standard-bearer of dry rosé. Exports from that region to the U.S. alone grew 62% in 2011. It seems the U.S., where sweet White Zinfandels long dominated this niche thereby scaring away any sophisticated palates, has finally seen the light…and it is pink: retail sales of imported rosé jumped 26% last year.

To whet our taste buds for the following evening of our tasting of rosés, we opened two of our favorite rosés produced in the Luberon: Gargas’ Cave Aureto (Indication Géographique Protégée, Vaucluse), a rosé and a whole winery about which I will be writing more soon and Lourmarin’s Chateau Constantin-Chevalier (Appellation d’Origine Controlée, Côtes Luberon, a rosé about which I have already raved.

Pierre Schott, Director of Retail Sales, at Aureto Winery in Gargas, France

The award-winning Aureto Tramontane (2010) rosé is one of our very favorites. Yes, my dear friend Pierre is the responsable des ventes aux particuliers at Aureto, meaning he is the person who manages the retail side of the winery’s cave, but beyond that connection, their rosé is incredibly appealing.

Pierre Schott conducting a tour at the ultra-modern Aureto winery

Aureto Tramontane 2010 Rosé

As faithful readers will recall, we really like the Pétale de Rosé produced by Chateau Constantin-Chevalier. It is a blend of Syrah and Grenache. Among its many pleasing attributes—please read our earlier post—it is “light but has identity,” as a friend of mine says.

Château Constantin-Chevalier 2009 Rosé

We thoroughly enjoyed both wines. Accolades were bandied about the table. Interestingly, the alcohol content of both wines is relatively high, reflecting a growing trend among rosé producers to make a more potent wine: the Aureto rosé is 13.5% and the Constantin-Chevalier is 14%. Between the two, the Constantin-Chevalier is a better aperitif wine and the Aureto holds its own better with food.

Nancy, Doreen, and Rebecca, waiting for wine Photo: Mark Sammons

Wine glasses with wine rings Photo: Mark Sammons

So, based on an approach we had seen (and used) in Beaune, charming village renown for producing some of the world’s legendary white Burgundies, we created “wine rings” and later wrote a booklet that simplifies the tasting of wine. When tasting a lot of wines, it is a terrific way to record your thoughts about the wines—by the end, the beginning is much easier to remember and since the rings are wrapped around the stem of the glass, there is no chance of them blowing in the wind.

Wines prepared for a blind tasting

A blind tasting means that we do not know what we are tasting—wine bottles are placed in bags and identified by a number—which makes for even more fun. I love blind tastings—the discussions are lively and results can be very surprising!

Wines the guests brought for a tasting

We began our tasting with two bottles (and a crudité with homemade curry mayonaise). Since some of us had never met and others had not seen each other in a long time, I thought that we could casually taste two bottles and still chat with one another. We started in our living room with a bottle of Château Puech-Haut (2010) from Coteaux de Languedoc and a bottle of King Estate Winery’s Acrobat (2011) from Western Oregon. 

The first two wines in our blind tasting (unveiled)

Photo: Mark Sammons

Wine Words to describe wines, from “A Primer of Wine Tasting”

Mark leads a toast Photo: David Scott Allen

The third bottle, from Southern California’s Temecula Valley (not exactly on the radar for producing particularly good wines), was the surprise hit of the night: South Coast Winery Tempranillo Rosé (2010). I had just been to Temecula where my brother John and niece Annie and I had done a little tasting—we had a great time but struggled to find wines we really liked. I picked up the aforementioned rosé, not because I was such a huge fan of it but because I thought it would be an interesting point of comparison at around $14.00. It is slightly sweet and very fruity, moving in the direction of a Sauterne. At our tasting, everyone loved it, including me! It was probably a nice switch from the dryer rosés and I think it went exceptionally well with the curry hummus and the mushroom caps stuffed with chèvre.The fourth wine, a Spanish wine, was not surprisingly made with Tempranillo (50%) and Grenacha (50%). Called Cortijo III (2011). It elicited more descriptions of various berries—I would definitely agree—but also of rosés and grapefruit. I think that this wine was refreshing, particularly following the South Coast Winery single-varietal Tempranillo. It went very well with our (delicious) verrines of lobster, mango, avocado, and tarragon.

The unveiling of our wines Photo: David Scott Allen

Château Saint-Pierre 2011 Rosé

A couple of post-tasting notes that I want to pass on.

Our favorite Portsmouth wine merchants: Win Rhoades of South Street and Vine and David Campbell of Ceres Street Wine

Eight wines are a lot of wines to taste in a given setting. Make sure to have a spittoon (i.e., an attractive container for disposing of wine left in the glass or for spitting).We had some wine left over. Of course, we drank some the next day but we also marinated sliced peaches and pluots in the rosé with a little lemon rind and mint. We served it on a semolina cake the following day!

A perfect dessert using left-over wine

Tasting wine in Cave au Château in Lourmarin