As one of the more senior (in more ways than one!) members of the Heights Chateau staff, I can well remember a time when we had to drag folk, virtually kicking and screaming, in the direction of our rosé selection. Happily, that is no longer the case, as soundly proven by the current refrain, "Where are your rosés?"
+/- Something for Everyone . . . a Rosé Tonight!
Why that early reluctance? I suspect it was residual fallout from early exposure to the likes of Lancers and Mateus, or even the color association with white Zinfandel, which left many with the assumption that rosé is, by definition, sweet. Even today I find the occasional customer who, standing in front of our wall of pink, will ask "which of these are sweet?" to which, I can happily reply, "none." (True, some are more fruity than others, but that's another issue entirely.)
There are many aspects of rosé we could celebrate, but I'll focus on three: its unpretentiousness, its affordability, and its diversity/versatility.
Rosé doesn't expect to be taken seriously, which is a great part of its charm and its suitability for warm weather. Can you picture a bunch of stuffed-shirt wine tasters sniffing and swirling Riedel glasses full of rosé? Nor can I. Rosé doesn't need to be analyzed, parsed, thought about, dissected, it just needs to be enjoyed. And, with all due deference to the tastemakers of the Hamptons, it should be sufficiently inexpensive as to make opening a bottle relatively guilt-free. Remember, rosé is the winemaker's cash cow: grapes picked and vinified in the fall of one year are converted into bottled wine released into the market in a mere six months' time, the following spring. No need for costly oak barrels, no need to see one's available assets tied up in bottles ageing in the cellar for months or even years. And here's another plus for the winemaker: many of the world's most popular rosés are blends of two, three, or more grapes, so if a winemaker has not enough Syrah, or Grenache, or Cabernet, or whatever to make on its own, the intelligent solution to the problem is to make a rosé. All this means that making rosé is, relatively speaking, an inexpensive process, and you should benefit accordingly.
How to make a rosé? Well, let's start with how not to make one. I recall many years ago reading a column in a travel magazine written by the late great restaurateur/raconteur George Lang. Lang told how, on a recent airplane flight, the stewardess asked him for his drinks order and, when he indicated wine, asked him "red, white, or rosé?" Lang, thoroughly mystified because he saw no rosé on her cart, rose to the bait and ordered it . . . at which point she opened a carafe of red and one of white and poured them together. No, that's not how it's done. To understand how rosé is made you need to know only two things: 1) the juice of all grapes, red or white, is white, and 2) the color of a wine, whether red, white, or rosé, comes from the pigment in the skin of the grape. The color of a particular rosé reflects not just the depth of color of the grape(s) used to make the wine but also the length of time the juice is left in contact with the skins, anywhere from one or two hours to several. (I used to maintain that a rosé had to be made from red grapes, and to my amazement, we recently took on a rosé made from Pinot Grigio; apparently there is enough pigment in the skin of this "gray" Pinot to make this possible.) Not only does the wine take its color from the skin but the depth and intensity of its character as well: the lighter the color, the more delicate and ephemeral the wine, while the deeper, darker versions could come close to passing as reds.
Which brings me to the true glory of rosé, namely its diversity and versatility. On a recent Saturday Matthew asked me if I had tried a particular rosé; instead of answering him directly I pointed to a particular wine on the shelf and said that my preference was for rosés that had at least that much color to them and went up the color scale from there, to which Matthew replied that his choice was from that point on the color scale on down. We laughed and said that between us we had the entire spectrum covered, but in fact there is a place for both styles: to put it a bit simplistically, the wines at the lighter end of the color spectrum are natural substitutes for whites, while the ones at the darker end, even well chilled, can stand in for a true red.
In contemplating this post, I thought it might be useful to replicate that color spectrum, from lightest to darkest; you may find it a useful guide to our range of selections. And one final note: if over the course of the season you find a particular rosé you fancy, consider making a commitment to it: most importers/distributors still think of rosé as a seasonal commodity and will take on from their producers only as much wine as they think they can sell between Memorial Day and Labor Day, so when a particular wine is gone, it's gone until the next vintage.
The Range of Our Rosés
Commanderie de la Bargemone 11 Rosé . . . Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Cabernet, Carignan, and Ugni Blanc from Provence @ $14.99
Bucklin 11 Old Hill Ranch Rosé . . . Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel, Carignan and Mourvèdre from Sonoma @ $22.99
Domaine de la Solitude 11 CdR Rosé . . . 100% Cinsault from the Rhône @ $13.99
Donkey & Goat 11 Rosé . . . 100% Grenache from Mendocino @ $22.99
Lopez de Heredia 00 Rosé Tondonia . . . mostly Grenache with a little Tempranillo and Viura blended in @ $24.99
Mattebella 10 Rosé . . . Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from Long Island's North Fork @ $13.99
Montenidoli 11 Rosato . . . 100% Canaiuolo from Tuscany @ $19.99
L'Opale de la Presqu'Ile de St. Tropez 11 Rosé . . . Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan from Provence @ $12.99
Paumanok 11 Dry Rosé . . . Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from Long Island's North Fork @ $16.99
La Rame 11 Rosé . . . primarily Cab and Merlot from Bordeaux @ $12.99
Saint Aix 10 Aix en Provence . . . Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Counoise from Provence @ $15.99
Sainte Lucie 11 MiP Rosé . . . Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah from Provence @ $14.99
Sinskey 2011 Vin Gris . . . 100% Pinot Noir from Sonoma @ $32.99
Tour du Bon 11 Bandol Rosé . . . Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Clairette from Provence @ $22.99
Aphillantes 11 CdR Rosé . . . mostly Cinsault, with Grenache, Counoise and a touch of Mourvèdre from the Rhône @ $12.99
Bonny Doon 11 Vin Gris de Cigare . . . Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Cinsault from Monterey @ $15.99
Brun 11 Rosé d'Folie Beaujolais . . . 100% Gamay from the Beaujolais @ $16.99
Carrel 11 Rosé de Savoie . . . a blend of Gamay and Mondeuse from the Savoy region of France @ $11.99
Charles & Charles 11 Rosé . . . 100% Syrah from Washington @ $10.99
Chateau d'Angles 11 Rosé La Clape . . . Mourvèdre, Syrah and Grenache from the Languedoc @ $14.99
Clapière 11 Rosé . . . Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah from Provence @ $14.99
Dalton 10 Rosé . . . 100% Cabernet from Israel @ $16.99
Delecheneau 11 Tournage Riant Rosé . . . Malbec, Gamay, and Grolleau from the Touraine @ $17.99
Edmunds St John 11 Bone Jolly . . . 100% Gamay Noir from California's El Dorado County @ $19.99
Esprit Sud 11 Rosé . . . Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Cabernet from Provence @ $14.99
Gobelsburg 11 Rosé . . . St. Laurent and Zweigelt from Austria @ $16.99
Le Grand Rouvière 11 Rosé . . . Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault from Provence @ $11.99
Grange Tiphaine 2011 Rosa, Rose, Rosam . . . a "Methode Ancestrale" sparkler made from Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Gamay and Grolleau @ $19.99
Manarine 11 CdR Rosé . . . 100% Grenache from the Rhône @ $11.99
Markowitsch 11 Rosé . . . an 80/20 blend of Blaufrankisch and Cabernet from Austria @ $13.99
Mas de Cadenet 11 Sainte Victoire Rosé…Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah from Provence @ $16.99
Ollieux Romanis 11 Corbières Rosé . . . Carignan, Syrah and Grenache from the Languedoc @ $15.99
Ostatu 11 Rosado . . . Tempranillo, Grenache and Viura from Rioja @ $16.99
Plouzeau 2011 Chinon . . . 100% Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley @ $13.99
Le Poisson 10 Gris . . . Grenache, Cinsault and Mourvèdre from Tunisia @ $11.99
Rimbert 2011 Petit Cochon Bronzé . . . a blend of Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache from the Languedoc @ $12.99
La Selve 11 Maguelonne Rosé . . . Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault from the Rhône @ $10.99
Source de Vignelaure 11 Rosé . . . Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet from Provence @ $14.99
Xavier Flouret 11 Nationale 7 Rosé . . . Grenache, Cinsault and Tiburon from Provence @ $14.99
Borsao 11 Rosé . . . 100% Grenache from Campo de Borja @ $7.99
Bouké 10 Rosé Dry . . . Cabernet and Merlot from Long Island's North Fork @ $13.99
Chateau Puligny-Montrachet 11 Rosé . . . 100% Pinot Noir from Burgundy @ $19.99
Chemin de Bassac "Isa" Rosé...Grenache Noir, Mourvèdre and Syrah from the Languedoc @ $15.99
Gourgazaud 11 Le P'tit Grain Rosé . . . 100% Syrah from the Languedoc @ $12.99
Hitching Post 11 Pinks . . . Pinot Noir and Valdiguié from California's Central Coast @ $17.99
Houchart 11 Côtes de Provence . . . Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Cabernet from Provence @ $11.99
Lamargue 11 Rosé Les Grandes Cabanes . . . 100% Syrah from the Rhône @ $9.99
Leone de Castris 2011 Salento "Five Roses" . . . Negroamaro and Black Malvasia from Puglia @ $15.99
Oupia 11 Rosé . . . Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault from the Minervois @ $15.99
Saintsbury 11 Vincent Vin Gris . . . 100% Pinot Noir from Carneros @ $17.99
Schola Sarmenti 2011 Rosato . . . 100% Negroamaro from Puglia @ $15.99
Uvaggio 09 Rosato . . . Primitivo, Barbera and Vermentino from Lodi @ $12.99
Casal Garcia 11 Rosé . . . Vinhaõ, Azal, and Borracal from the Vinho Verde region of Portugal @ $8.99
La Kiuva NV Rosé de Vallée . . . Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir from the Valle d'Aosta in northwestern Italy @ $14.99
Mulderbosch 11 Rosé . . . 100% Cabernet from South Africa @ $10.99
Musar 09 Jeune Rosé . . . 100% Cinsault from Lebanon @ $15.99
Shinn Estate 11 Rosé . . . 100% Merlot from Long Island's North Fork @ $14.99
Chateau Penin 2011 Rosé . . . Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from Bordeaux @ $12.99
Chateau Penin 2011 Clairet . . . 100% Merlot from Bordeaux @ $12.99
Cortijo III 11 Rosado . . . Tempranillo and Grenache from Rioja @ $10.99
Crios 2011 Rosado . . . . 100% Malbec from Argentina @ $10.99
Penamonte 11 Rosado . . . 100% Grenache from Navarre @ $8.99
ZaZa 11 Rosado . . . 100% Grenache from the Campo de Borja @ $10.99
And for those of you who may be wondering…the wine that represents the meeting ground between Matthew's take on rosés and mine is the one in bold-face type on the list. And for those of you who may be wondering…the wine that represents the meeting ground between Matthew's take on rosés and mine is the one in bold-face type on the list.
Click here to see an exhaustive list of all our Rosés!