Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Handful Of Refreshing Pink Wines For This Gawd Awful Weather



Holy Mother of all heat waves, it’s blistering out here. I know many of my readers are from outside California but let me just tell you….it’s like walking on the surface of the sun around these parts, and for those of you that are from southern California, does this blow or what? It’s April dammit, like two weeks ago we were still wearing sweatshirts now I am having to wet my shirt just to keep from being a cranky bitch….(grumble). Yesterday was ridiculous, just moving made me sweat and sweating without the benefit of like burning calories, or havin’ a little fun, (if you know what I’m sayin’) is just annoying.

I was uncomfortable all day, and reading posts, or tweets or whatever they are called over on facebook, the others in the area were very much in the same boat. Sweaty, swollen, uncomfortable and cranky, oh and clearly whinny as well, it was craptastic. I tried everything to shift my “tude” but little was working, that was until I remembered that I had a few bottles of Rose in the fridge! I had grabbed a bunch to write more extensive notes, so hard when a supplier comes in with like 12 Roses to taste….I mean in that setting the notes start looking the same. I wanted to spend more time, taste them with food and focus on that side of the wine’s personality…um, yeah did I mention I was cranky and looking for something to soothe me?!

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5 bottles opened, sweaty hair pulled back in a ponytail, and pen in hand, I attacked. I’ll fully admit that at first I was kind of guzzling, they are just so damn refreshing that I was finishing my glass, (it was not a full glass mind you…sheesh whadaya think I am?!) before I had even three lines of notes. I toyed with the idea of telling my husband that it was so damn hot that the wines were evaporating, but fearing I was in no mood for his mockery I let it go. I let my palate get saturated and then it was time to get serious, well, as serious as one gets with Rose anyway.

Here is a smattering of what will be the giant piles of pink wine that will grace the front of our store, we have about 8 now, more to come next week and waaaaayyy more in the weeks after, it’s damn hot people, get your pink on.
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2008 Chateau de Pampelonne Cotes de Provence Rose, (16.99) We first flipped over this wine with the 2006 vintage but many of us felt the 2007 fell a little short, sad part is, it hadn’t..it just needed time. I had a bottle in January and it was absolutely delicious and when I tasted the 2008 it reminded me of the 2007 with a few months of age on it. Soft fruit, almost like strawberry hard candy sans the sweetness, so like cooked berries with a pretty little middle of wet stones, in the mouth the wine is full and quite gentle with a crisp not too tart finish. A wine I would love with spicy grilled shrimp, chicken or anything with a little punch of aggressive seasoning.

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2008 Domaine de Fenouillet Cotes du Ventoux Rose, (11.99) Of the five wines this one was the one that showed the most upfront fruit, again like cooked berries but deeper like raspberries with a sprinkle of white pepper. Plump in the mouth but with a sharp, ultra refreshing snap on the finish.

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2008 Patton Valley Pinot Noir Rose, ($14.99) This was one of my favorites last year so I was pretty thrilled when we got our little stack in…but, um…I think this wine needs just a couple of weeks to pull itself together, it’s kinda all over the place. It has all the pieces, racy tart melon, lemon rind and a light delicate body but I think it needs to settle a bit, showing a bit of spritz at first that gives way to a super sour finish….like I said, I have had this wine and love it so I am sure it is just a little disjointed right now and I will report back when I re-taste it in a couple of weeks.

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2008 Domaine de la Petite Mairie Bourgueil Rose, ($16.99) Now I ordered this wine without tasting it, I was going with the whole, “Loire Cabernet Franc is on fire" angle and just crossed my fingers….dude. Rose petals, spice, delicate and round enough in the mouth to make you believe you are drinking a red wine…but a super tangy refreshing one! Randy and I both flipped over this one, he even called to see if we could more than the 3 cases I ordered, we did, 18 more bottles…doh! Gonna fly and as I am planning to pour it this weekend for our Cabernet Franc tasting, well I don’t suspect it will be around too long.

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2008 Domaine du Bagnol Cassis Rose, ($22.99) “Cha-Ching” as far as Roses go, it is clearly up there in price but it is worth every penny. You want to know what “serious” Rose tastes like? This is it, minerals, watermelon rind, wild strawberry and a lean tight body of thirst quenching acidity. Bring on the grilled veggies, thick garlic mayo, charred meats and fresh seafood

8 comments:

vickibarkley said...

Wow, I'm so there. Sounds great.

Samantha Dugan said...

The Roses this year are a touch softer than last but with this heat....fantastic

Jerry D. Murray said...

Samantha,

Thanks for your comments regarding the 2008 Patton Valley Vineyard Rose. First as far as the spritz goes, this is by design. I make the wine to be refreshing on hot days as well as for restaurant glass pours and find a bit of spritz helps refresh and keeps things crisp as the bottle sit, open, for several hours. This wine is actually a little less spritzy than previous vintages, I felt in the past I had pushed it a bit far. Also I am not sure which market you are in but this wine likely just got off of the truck so I appreciate your comments about needing some time. I hope you will find it every bit as enjoyable as last years.

Jerry D. Murray
Winemaker/vineyard manager
Patton Valley Vineyard

Samantha Dugan said...

Mr. Murray,
You know, when I was writing my notes I kept thinking, "God, I hope this does not sound BAD" as that was not at all my intent, as a matter of fact I was more reaching out to a customer, (also a reader) that made a comment to me about the wine, which I had recommended to him. I wanted to assure him that the wine was correct, although I did feel it was a bit spritzy-er than last vintage, but we got the wine late in the season last year so maybe it had mellowed a bit?
I would feel horrible if this review was seen as a slam of any sort because as I said, I've had the wine before, loved it and felt that everything was there...just a little "in shock". Hell, could have been the way it fell in the line up as well.
I appreciate you taking the time to post and I will take another bottle home over the next couple days and (as I said) report back. I'm sure I will love it as much as I have in the past...we took as much as the supplier would give us so we dig it bigtime!

Amy Rust said...

Nice and refreshing--just like the weather today--about 20 degrees cooler. I like your honest approach to these wines, which sometimes (if you're not careful) can be described in the same way. Nice vocabulary!
Amy

Nancy Deprez said...

Great rose review! Very cool that the winemaker himself came to post a comment - how cool is that??? I wonder if any winemakers read my blog??

Samantha Dugan said...

Nancy,

Not sure it was that cool as I was not really raving about the wine, felt kinda bad but I wrote what I felt about the wine so whadda ya gonna do? I just can't figure out how he came across my blog!

Jerry D. Murray said...

Samantha,

I didn't take your post as a slam, those tend to be much more venomous. You gave your opinion on a wine and I respect that, I think your readers should as well. I have developed thick skin about these things anyway, as a winemaker you can't try to make every drinker happy. You have to do what you do and hope the wine meets people that will appreciate it.

Nancy,

If winemakers are not reading your blog they soon will be, or at least marketing folks will be. The industry has been a bit slow in responding to the blog thing. Once we figure out how to best utilize the medium for our own selfish purposes, the blogs will be read. Just keep writing.