Rosé All Day
Rosé All Day, All Month…..All Year!
Welcome to June, National Rosé Month. The wine that has no history, that’s easy to make, has no place on the serious dinner table, only good as an aperitif or insta post, only for summer drinking and if’s darker, it’s sweeter, right? WRONG…….
Yes, this wine style has been gaining traction in recent years but rosé isn’t really a “trend”. Rosé is one of history’s oldest wines. In antiquity wines produced across the mediterranean rim, first in Greece and later throughout the Roman Empire, were all very light-colored wines. The grapes were crushed and the juice immediately began fermenting. There was no contact with the must (juice, seeds, stems & skins) and no aging, so the wines were very lightly colored.
Many of the first recorded wines were rosé, light libations made by watering down field blends of combined white and red grapes. In ancient Greece, it was considered civilized to dilute wine. There was a widespread belief that only barbarians—drunkards who raped and murdered— drank pure wine. I wonder what they would think of us today?
As winemaking techniques developed, so did the quality and popularity of rosé. Use of red grapes and short skin-contact made the wine more palatable and this style, whose spiritual home is the south of France, became the symbol of wealth, leisure and summer.
After a lot of changes in the wine world due to vine pests, wars and prohibition, tastes as they cyclically do changed towards a sweeter style of wine. If you were an imbiber in the ’60’s you may remember the likes of Mateus & Lancers, who frankly did nothing to help Rosé’s cause (though people were consuming them).
Fast forward to 1975, Bob Trinchero (Sutter Home) was making Red Zinfandel in California and something happened. He had 800 gallons in the tank and discovered he had a ‘stuck fermentation’. Yeast gets overwhelmed before the wine is completed and they die, retaining the remaining residual sugar. Leaving him a huge vat of sweet pinkish juice. He decided to bottle it and sell it as White Zinfandel. He sold 350 cases as this new style of “blush” wine. It became a runaway success. It flew off the shelves without advertising and 1994 Wine Spectator gave Bob the Distinguished Service Award for introducing more non-wine drinkers to wine than anyone else. To this day, the sales haven’t dipped since the 80s and it’s still one of the best selling wines in America.
In the 2000’s dry wine, particularly rosé began it’s reign, with it being associated with resorts, R&R and the emergence of celebrity wines. An event in in 2014 really catapulted rosé into the forefront with all news outlets reporting…….THE HAMPTON’S RAN OUT OF ROSÉ….*Gasp.
Today the style has seen all demographics contributing to the growth with expanded appeal across occasions and seasons.
With rosé being produced all over the world with any red grape you can imagine, we guarantee there is a pink juice out there for you. That being said, there is a food situation for every rosé too. Drink a bottle if you’re at a restaurant and everyone is ordering something different. It goes wonderfully with charcuterie, cured meats/cheeses, burgers, eggs/omelette/frittatas… breakfast wine :)! Drink it with foods that are pink: salmon, tuna tartar, pasta with vodka sauce. It is my go-to with BBQ chicken as well as buffalo wings. And yes, it is still the wine that transports you to the beach, toes in the sand, rosé in your hand.
To celebrate this month, we are offering our 17 club members a very special rosé: Maçanita Touriga Nacional Em Rosé, at a very special price ($20!). Joana Maçanita makes this glass of sunshine out of the native Portuguese grape, Touriga Nacional, one the grapes that is authorized to make port. Besides port, this grape is often made into rich, ripe reds. When it’s put into her hands, she transforms the “Queen of Portuguese Grapes” into its floral and mineral personality in refreshing fashion. Think strawberry, cherry blossoms with a touch of white pepper. For June only, you can add on a bottle to your membership for only $20 — when you come pick up your bottles, let us know and we’ll grab a bottle for you!
It’s too much fun finding these wines, and even more fun sharing them with you. Happy Drinking!!
Cheers,
Heidi
