Hot Pink
Something funny happened while we were all busy laughing at rosé. It got good By David Lawrason
Image credit: Brian Rea
It isn’t easy being pink, with aromas of candy floss and dime-store licorice, and that embarrassing nickname—blush. But rosé has come around from the days when the name meant either “easy-drinking” white zinfandel or Mateus, that old brown-bag fave. In fact, the commercial success of those wines allowed worthier bottlings to flourish, Mateus’s chart-topping sales funding a renaissance of native Portuguese reds, for example. And over time, many blushes themselves became rave-worthy. Well-made rosé’s warmth, soft texture and mild berry-cherry-redcurrant jam flavours pair well with Asian, southwestern and Mediterranean foods, providing a compote-like counterpoint and cushion rather than jousting with them at full gallop. Perhaps that’s why we’re buying more of the good stuff lately: Vintages reported a 58 per cent increase in the sales of premium-priced pinkies last year. Southern France (Tavel, Provence, Languedoc) and Spain (Navarra) are cradles of serious rosé, with the grenache grape (garnacha in Spain) transporting its pepper and anise to the summer table particularly well. Rosé is also being fashioned from pinotage in South Africa, cabernet in Chile and pinot noir in New Zealand, plus gamay and other varieties right here in Niagara. It’s enough to make a wine enthusiast blush.
TEST Originally published August 2006
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Hot Pink
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