Rose

The recent heatwave has ushered in the summer season. I am reminded of last summer's distraction from the heat with my foray into the world of Rose' wines. I would visit a liquor store that had no idea what they carried, and sample Roses to learn for myself the various types and styles. There I was, sitting on the back porch watching the sun go down, planning the opening of the store and thinking to myself there is good pink to drink. So refreshing, and versitile with many foods, especially grilled foods. I was like many, rose' is like White Zinfandel, and I am not interested. I was so wrong. Rose' opened a whole other world of wine gifts to humans. On another note, there is controversy brewing in the wine world as there are some that want to permit the blending of white and red wine to create the rose'. We will see what develops there.

Here is the quick version of rose' production. Remember the color of the wine is a result of the length of time the skins of the grape are with the juice. There are basically two ways of making rose'. The main one is leaving the red skins on the squeezed juice for a just a few hours and then removing them from the tank. The other is called bleeding which means they "bleed" off some of the juice from a soon to be red wine and leave the remaining extra skins to stay with the remaining juice to concentrate the tannins, color, and flavor. The first process is specific to doing the rose', where the second is producing rose' as a kind of by-product of the real purpose, making red wine.

Dry rose' is very refreshing and should be served chilled. The prominent flavor is strawberry but depending on what the grape is, you have lots of other interesting flavors. Syrah and Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc are some of the grapes used to make delicious rose wine. Rose' is an excellent appetizer wine with its versatility to a wide range of food flavors. It can help mellow spicy dishes such as Mexican & Thai, and they can have the body to hold up to many meats.

The wine shop has rose wine from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, South Africa, and California. The wines can be so refreshing on a hot summer day. I now understand the attraction to rose from winemakers and critics alike. I encourage you to try one or two this summer. But I must warn you, you may get the pink bug.

John