Screaming Values
Affordable rosés for your summer pleasure
Josh Raynolds
The ocean of mostly bad white zinfandel that washed over American wine drinkers during the 1980s did incalculable damage to the reputation of all pink wines, even to outstanding versions from Provence. But time, it appears, heals all wounds. It's hard to imagine a category of the wine world that's hotter or more fashionable than rosé right now. A great number of these wines are actually better than drinkable, and some of them are flat-out superb.
As with any category of wine it is relatively easy, but by no means a slam-dunk, to find a good bottle--as long as you're willing to pay up. Fortunately that isn't necessary with rosé, as I discovered recently while tasting through well over 200 pink wines for my annual rosé round-up in the International Wine Cellar. Of the more than 100 wines I have singled out for their quality, a surprising number of them carry suggested retail prices in the $15 neighborhood, which means that they might be found for as little as $12 in some markets. My IWC article should give you more than enough affordable choices to carry you through the dog days of summer; below I've provided just a small taste of my top finds.
In a nutshell, rosés are typically made from the juice of red grapes. There are two ways to accomplish this. Following the pressing of the red grapes the juice is allowed to sit in contact with the color-imparting skins (with extremely rare exception the juice of all grapes is white) just long enough to pick up a bit of color before it is moved off the skins to finish fermentation. The second way of making rosé is to drain juice that has begun to take on color from the fermentation tank. This approach has the added benefit, or consequence, of concentrating the red wine left behind as it decreases its proportion of juice to grape skins. In many parts of the world producers simply blend white wine with enough red wine to get some color, added aroma and flavor, but it's rare to find a high-quality rosé that's made this way--especially in Europe, where it is illegal.
The 2009 Domaine Houchart Côtes de Provence Rosé is an outstanding value in classic, highly fragrant, brisk southern French rosé, easily the quality equal of many other wines from the region that cost far more.
(Le Domaine Houchart Rosé 2009 en Côte de Provence est une valeur sûre parmi les classiques, un rosé du sud de la France très parfumé et vif, qui concurrence facilement beaucop d'autres vins de la région, beaucoup plus chers)
http://www.winophilia.com/2010/07/29/affordable-roses-for-your-summer-pleasure/#more-1691
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