Last Modified: Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 4:31 p.m.
Starting around Easter, it has become sort of chic for wine experts to recommend dry rosé wines, ostensibly because it goes well with ham.
My recommendations for dry rosé go back decades, and back then there weren't very many of them.
Looking at the category in the last few days has revealed an almost identical amount of visibility: little to none.
The key word here is visibility. Though you don't see many nicely dry rosé wines, if you lift a few rocks, you may find them cowering there.
But even wine makers who love to make such things are often reluctant to do so in any volume.
The reason is easy to figure out: What happens when a young, fresh, vibrant rosé doesn't sell on release? Answer: It is seen as worthless.
Having lost freshness and vivacity, a dry rosé is looked upon as simply old and no longer the refreshing thing it once was.
I have another take on this (see below), but it's clear that the huge growth in dry rosés in the last few years is done with apprehension. In general, you have to seek out these rare things, but the exercise will be rewarding.
Moreover, those who make dry rosé often do so in a rather sotto voce manner, almost as if the wineries that make this thing know it needs a helping hand.
Winery personnel who work the wine tasting rooms and public-event tastings almost all say the same thing: “When I say to people, ‘We have a dry rosé,' people usually say, ‘No thanks, I don't drink sweet wine.' What part of ‘dry' are they missing?”
The missing link here is that if the person sees the color of the wine, and remembers how bad and cloyingly sweet some of those White Zinfandels of the 1980s were, they will turn their back on anything pink.
But the winery people all usually add, “But if we can get them to try the wine, they love it.”
Dry rosé wines often have a trace of sugar, which delivers lovely flavors on the tongue, but the best are those with sufficient acid levels to keep the wine from being sweet in the finish.
If the winery is smart, it will tell you whether the wine is really dry (aimed at food) or medium-dry (sort of picnic-y).
Any wine with about 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent residual sugar qualifies as a dry wine, but it also depends on the alcohol and acid as to how it seems.
Best bet is to seek rosé wines that have less than 14 percent alcohol since the higher the alcohol, the sweeter the impression the wine will make on your palate.
For me, the best rosé wines are made from such grapes as sangiovese, pinot noir and grenache, with syrah also making a nice pink wine when the fruit is handled carefully.
In some areas of the country, where these grapes don't grow especially well, I have seen attractive rosés from cabernet franc, gamay and even lemberger.
Moreover, on the East Coast and in the Midwest, I have tasted some stylish pink wines made from French-American hybrid grapes, including a few rare examples of Norton Rosé from Virginia wineries.
As for older rosés, if you don't think of them as pink, and try to think of them as light red wines, they can be charming companions with lighter foods.
One discount operation had a $15 (suggested retail) rosé from a Sonoma County winery closed out last week for $4.99. I tried it. It was superb .
.
. as long as I thought of it as a light red.
The best part of dry rosé is that almost none of it ever tops $20 a bottle and most are half that price.
Wine of the Week: 2009 Waterbrook Sangiovese Rosé, Columbia Valley ($13) — This stylish pink wine is loaded with cherries, melons (notably watermelon), and has a lovely crisp finish that works well with roast chicken and other simple dishes.
Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes “Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at danberger@rocketmail.com.
<p>Starting around Easter, it has become sort of chic for wine experts to recommend dry rosé wines, ostensibly because it goes well with ham.</p><p>My recommendations for dry rosé go back decades, and back then there weren't very many of them.</p><p>Looking at the category in the last few days has revealed an almost identical amount of visibility: little to none.</p><p>The key word here is visibility. Though you don't see many nicely dry rosé wines, if you lift a few rocks, you may find them cowering there.</p><p>But even wine makers who love to make such things are often reluctant to do so in any volume.</p><p>The reason is easy to figure out: What happens when a young, fresh, vibrant rosé doesn't sell on release? Answer: It is seen as worthless.</p><p>Having lost freshness and vivacity, a dry rosé is looked upon as simply old and no longer the refreshing thing it once was.</p><p>I have another take on this (see below), but it's clear that the huge growth in dry rosés in the last few years is done with apprehension. In general, you have to seek out these rare things, but the exercise will be rewarding.</p><p>Moreover, those who make dry rosé often do so in a rather sotto voce manner, almost as if the wineries that make this thing know it needs a helping hand. </p><p>Winery personnel who work the wine tasting rooms and public-event tastings almost all say the same thing: “When I say to people, ‘We have a dry rosé,' people usually say, ‘No thanks, I don't drink sweet wine.' What part of ‘dry' are they missing?”</p><p>The missing link here is that if the person sees the color of the wine, and remembers how bad and cloyingly sweet some of those White Zinfandels of the 1980s were, they will turn their back on anything pink.</p><p>But the winery people all usually add, “But if we can get them to try the wine, they love it.”</p><p>Dry rosé wines often have a trace of sugar, which delivers lovely flavors on the tongue, but the best are those with sufficient acid levels to keep the wine from being sweet in the finish.</p><p>If the winery is smart, it will tell you whether the wine is really dry (aimed at food) or medium-dry (sort of picnic-y).</p><p>Any wine with about 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent residual sugar qualifies as a dry wine, but it also depends on the alcohol and acid as to how it seems.</p><p>Best bet is to seek rosé wines that have less than 14 percent alcohol since the higher the alcohol, the sweeter the impression the wine will make on your palate.</p><p>For me, the best rosé wines are made from such grapes as sangiovese, pinot noir and grenache, with syrah also making a nice pink wine when the fruit is handled carefully.</p><p>In some areas of the country, where these grapes don't grow especially well, I have seen attractive rosés from cabernet franc, gamay and even lemberger.</p><p>Moreover, on the East Coast and in the Midwest, I have tasted some stylish pink wines made from French-American hybrid grapes, including a few rare examples of Norton Rosé from Virginia wineries.</p><p>As for older rosés, if you don't think of them as pink, and try to think of them as light red wines, they can be charming companions with lighter foods.</p><p>One discount operation had a $15 (suggested retail) rosé from a Sonoma County winery closed out last week for $4.99. I tried it. It was superb .<TH>.<TH>. as long as I thought of it as a light red.</p><p>The best part of dry rosé is that almost none of it ever tops $20 a bottle and most are half that price.</p><p><CF103>Wine of the Week:</CF> 2009 Waterbrook Sangiovese Rosé, Columbia Valley ($13) — This stylish pink wine is loaded with cherries, melons (notably watermelon), and has a lovely crisp finish that works well with roast chicken and other simple dishes.</p><p>Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes “Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at danberger@rocketmail.com.</p>