Rosé Gold

I had a helluva time getting the shots for this. Beyond struggling with the dress in which sideboob is inevitable.

Beyond my lack of gold (jewelry or clothing) to bring in that element to the shoot.

Beyond the fact that dammit I couldn’t get my hair to behave–I was struggling to catch a vibe.

Then it occurred to me maybe I should be focusing on the pretty wine, not my pretty-adjacent self.

But nah fuck it. This wine is named with a color that defined millenials, a generation that made the selfies A Thing. Self indulgent selfies it was!

And how. I made eyes with this wine all night long and feel like we really were connecting before it occurred to me I should try it.

The wine I was courting was Rose Gold Côtes du Provence Rosé. I feel like this wine gives a party-forward attitude, but I also feel like it borders on being a Serious Rosé. As in it has body. It has complexity.

It is quite the blend: 42.5 % Grenache, 11.7% Syrah, 27.2% Cinsault, .8% Tibouren, 6.7% Mourvèdre, 6.8% Carignan, 1.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Rolle, .4% Ugni Blanc, and .3% Clairette. I hope all that adds up to 100%, I haven’t done the math.

It’s so super fresh! But also plush! There’s an element of lees aging that really boosts the body. And when I drink it and close my eyes I see ultramarine blue-green. I adore.

Coral in color. Sniffing it-wise on top of red and yellow AND white stone fruit (i.e. so much fun florals) I also got blood orange and SCADS of minerals. Yes to yellow and white peach and raspberry sea-salt nose. Dry but unctuous (as unctuous as rosés go) body.

Palate echoes nose with a…so some wines feel concise. Cutting. They make their impression. Not this one. This one invites expansion. You may not make new discoveries or you will, pending your attention span.

All over, would I hand this wine a rose (um The Bachelor (which I’ve never watched) reference) yeah I WOULD. Is it a rose-worthy rose?

YES!

So gold. so Rosé. So Super. And selfie worthy which for some wine writers may be the most important thing but for me it’s the icing on the cake. Or should I say the filter on the selfie. Which is which.

Basic: an interlude


Okay thank you Gallo for this shiznit. 

2016 Edna Valley Vineyard California Rosé

It is basic.

But on a hot LA night is it…refreshing? Yah. 

Bracing? Yah. Fuck yah I thought the alcohol level was higher.

Interesting? Oh dot dot dot…(so like literally dot dot dot) Nah. 

The price is straight up value though. Worth it on a hot summer night.

But it is pink and dry and redolent of ripe strawberries and little else but this ain’t no strawberry hill fiasco. It is so crisp dangit. 

And that screwcap just twists off like you live in a “who needs to remember a corkscrew” heaven.

It just fills the bill. The bill being my mouth as I sit here reading Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker for inspo because can’t stop won’t stop. Learning the vino.

Cheers y’all. Go to bed for fuck’s sake.

Free lurve

I don’t love this don’t worry. I got it for free but was, based on chums, compelled to tell you of it.

But! It mixes and YOU might be into it.

Barefoot Wine California Rosé

I’m willing to bet some of my non-wine-peeps would be into it. They might prefer it over, say, a Barolo that cost 10 times this. This retails around 8-11 bucks.

And honestly? If you told your bartender “I want something a pink, a tad sweet and generally non-offensive and have I mentioned I like Pinot Grigio and moscato because I do,” then this would be the thing.

It’s too sweet for me. I sip and at first sip think of candied strawberries. That is good. Then I think oh heck that, that’s a LOT of overly sweet strawberry stuff and it is…for a friend of mine that loves this stuff.

So the take home message is this may be your jam and if you have a friend who resents a hint of savory in wine, this may be it. For them.

Oof it also may be for you if you plug it into drinks. I plugged it into this lovely recipe instead of muscat…and it was the stuff for that. Yeaaaa!

Let me be clear: FUCK NO this is not MY wine for sipping. But as required for a cocktail or a friend who (fuck I’m a snob) doesn’t actually love wine, this is your top affordable juice. Also for your drink that wants a splash of semi-sweet wine. 

I think my mom (no offense mom it is good for sweet-ish wine lovers)  would enjoy this as would several chums of mine. In the meantime in the cocktail I linked to I enjoy it. And…okay I do not NOT enjoy it in a glass.

OMG

It is pink! It is dry! It is PINK and BOOZY!!!! IT’s real tasty Bardolino yo

Okay so let us OVERCOME our SKEPTISCISM!! The famed wine from ye olde Veneto is Valpolicella. Which is Corvina, Rondinella, Molinara and possibly other -a– grapes. And then within the region…nearby! Is Bardolino. With its Bardolino Chiaretto rosé and fuck if I do not love an underdog rosé. Let us get the fuck into Chiaretto.

LET US ALL GIVE AT LEAST AN AIR KISS TO BARDOLINO CHIARETTO!!

Muah, muah dahlingzzz.

2015 Corte Gardoni  Chiaretto

It was real good shit.

That is so articulate.

Okay so it is not groundbreaking nor will it make you..I dunno. Swing from the chandelier?! The only thing to ever make me swing like that is Sia’s Chandelier and tharrrr is dancing in that link, so that is where I am but this wine was in the omg come on pink wine skeptics let us have a lark. If not a swing…

Okay let us just say inspiration! This wine you taste and wanna dance!!! You wanna move. Waggle your hips and bob your head and maybe some wine ARSEhole will say what Bardolino?! Chiaretto?!  Are you kidding?

And. 

I. 

Say: I say I have been pursuing Corvina-grape nirvana some time so let us all dance like we were in a Sia vid together. That would be magic.

Sans magic I will give you fucking boring shit—Wait…just get in!

If you want my credential analysis-stuffs to make you feel qualified in finding this and serving this loveliness–I’m recommending it with my WSET (Wine and Spirit Educational Trust level 3 credentials:

Eye: clear. medium peach. medium tears whatever the fuck most of us do not know about tears.

Nose: clean, medium plus peaches, raspberries and pomegranate. youthful cause duh it is only a couple years.

On zee tongue!!More of the nose. The acid is medium plus and the alcohol is also so (checking–it is 12% so yah more than medium SCORE!) and no tannins obvi. Other than all this this is a generic but I’d drink the hell out of it stuff…Because there is a hint of fucking strawberries in sorbet or even perhaps sherbet?! So all is to say this rosé is worth your time in the night. The finish goes on and on, so you say of it, it is all the bullshit plus some textured vanilla and thyme like maybe there was an herb in there some…time. But generally…

Let us get into this PINK! PINK IS THE STUFF!!!

Into the night! With pink.

Let us dooooo it.

Pink. Love. Hearts n stuff. 💕💕💕💕💕❤️❤️🍷🍷🍷

 

One for you, one because yum, sip, gulp

Okay this one is simple. 

Maybe I am over-simplifying because this wine is more complex than some of the other pinkies that arrived at my step this season. 

Yet the simplicity is quite elegant for a wine you can grab from the grocery store. 

2016 Dark Horse Rosé

This is simpler than some of the even cheaper rosés I’ve sampled this  season but better too. It is simple but pretty and balanced and I appreciate the name and label. 

So if you only ever buy grocery stores for wine do me a favor and grab this.

It is a good pink delight. Grab it. Drink it. Wooooohoo! 

That’s all for tonight, lovers.

WINTER comes Rosé

My main fear is that my multitude of smart, educated, impassioned musings on rosé still cannot get people to give pink wine a fair shot.

That’s not actually my main fear. My main fears are not fare for blogging here. ANYWAY.

Rosé is NOT JUST FOR SUMMER!!!!

HOPEFULLY ALL CAPS CONVINCE YOU!!!!

Rosé is a wine for all seasons. Don’t you give me lip. This is what you want. I promise. It will warm you up, cool your tongue and light up your soul. 

Before we get to today’s pick let us revisit rosés of the past. This Rosé is still my fave American pink. This One is still my SECOND fave french. 

But right now this is truly my latest hardcore Give Me pink vino love:
2015 Chateau de Trinquevedel Rosé

A full deep wine that offers as much on the tongue as it does to the eye.

ME-fucking-OW.

You are thirsty. You want something pretty badass and PRETTY to look at too. You want something that makes the woman in you roar. Or maybe the secure male in you knows that true men drink pink…you want that part to make some noise.

So this. It is full and vibrant pink that verges on salmon but is HOT DAMN deep pink.

45% Grenache, 24% Cinsault, 15% Clairette, 10% Mourvedre, 6% Syrah

It smells of pink grapefruit, limes, cranberries, and holy fuck fabric? Like crisp ironed fabric. Linens.

And some white roses. Picture a bouquet of white roses on Ophelia’s chest floating away from the shore. It is romantic and delicious.

It is those holiday napkins you starch and iron for special occasions. But you folded them into cornucopias holding strawberries and limes and maybe a pretty smooth river stone.

Like the stiffness of a starched napkin it is robust–a plate full of cranberry sauce and bread hearty stuff. But it is elegant. The starched napkin, unfolded into the lap of a woman in silk changes that dynamic.

It is good. Dang.

So that OUGHT to be enough but if you are a wine nerd here are my WSET 3 notes:

EYES: Clear, medium plus, salmon pink 

NOSE: clean, medium intensity grapefruit, wet stones, nectarines and starch. Youthful.

TONGUE: dry, medium plus acid, medium alcohol+ (thank you Grenache for that 13.5%abv), medium plus body for a rosé, flavor intensity medium, then the grapefruits, cranberries, linens, white peach, white flower and honey perhaps? And just fucking delicious. Finish is medium. Not complex but mellow and stony. Picture the feeling you get turning a cool stone over and over in your palm and that is this. Delish.

Quality: GREAT. That’s not WSET just me. I’d think at least twenty but holy duckbills it is like 18. Drink now don’t age. Get next year’s when it is there. Andddddd YES. THIS IS A YES WINE JUST DRINK IT EVEN IN WINTER ESPECIALLY IN WINTER

Let Us Stay: Beaujolais

Okay so I swear my ten-part series on cru Beaujolais is coming. I am in the midst of amassing a wine from each cru. St-Amour is hard to find, y’all. But I’m on it.

IN THE MEANTIME PINNNNNNNK! Pink as in Rosé.

From a winemaker who you may just see resurface in the ten-part series but HOLY HECK I love this producer:

2015 Pierre-Marie Chermette Vissoux “Les Griottes” Beaujolais Rosé

While generally I claim this as THE BEST I’d say on another note this may be at least one of the best. Shit, you guys. I have enough love in my heart for A LOT of rosés out there.

YAS Gamay rosé from the Chermette’s YAS.

I don’t know if the grammar was correct for Chermette’s. Are Pierre and Marie one or two people? Should I have said “Chermettes'”? These things matter.

But not as much as my tasting notes. Sweet babies.

Okay I lie I paused and did some research: Pierre-Marie and Martine Chermette were the upstarts of sustainable viticulture in Beaujolais. So Pierre-Marie is one person. This is a natural wine. Like it waits for the natural yeast to do it’s duty.

That yeast knew what was up!

This wine. Okay I’ll get to my tasting notes. At last:

Gorgeous salmon color. Peach melba on the nose. Dry. HIGH acid. Medium alcohol. Medium plus body as far as a rosé goes! There is some viscousity. More peach melba in the mouth. When I say peach melba I mean peaches plus acidic raspberries plus vanilla n cream. There is a hint of minerality but it is very smooth. Sanded stones. The finish LINGERS! ON! FURTHER THAN YOU’D EXPECT FOR A ROSÉ!

THIS IS THE MAGIC. FRENCH BEAUJOLAIS MAGIC.

This Gamay is my true love.

For now. I’m a fickle beast.

Meow.

 

It’s everywhere for good enough reasons

Okay so I felt shabby when I purchased this at 7-11. So I went home and drew stars on my face. It was pretty chill. I felt less shame.

Truth is, sometimes a girl needs to make an Oreo and wine run, and I live 1/2 a block from a 7-11. 7-11 will surprise you in the relative decentness of their collection. They even have Columbia-Crest.

Don’t you judge. I stand behind my life choices.

This is the choice:

2015 Charles and Charles Columbia Valley Syrah Rosé 

61% Syrah, 12% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, 7% Cinsault, 3% Counoise

Then, after that purchase, I saw this wine at a bar that–well–it had decent wine. More of a beer place but the wine selection was unobjectionable.

And then I saw this wine available at Wine House. Between this and the bar I decided there must be something behind it. It made me feel just super about my 7-11 purchase. 

This wine is that movie made by the comedian you expect to not offer much, that ends up touching you in your heart more deeper than you thought the comedian could. This wine is The Truman Show. It is more than you expect.

But the thing is you look at it and think dang! This will be a complex rosé but dang! Dang again. In a good way. It is…oh I dunno, delightfully fluorescent enough to merit a grlzz night. Because goddamit I’m a girl and my most feminist friends AND feminine (often one and the same) friends fucking LOVE PINK!

GIVE ME PINK or… well if they are roses on Valentine’s Day make ’em red but whatevs. I’m kinda traditional.

Okay what to expect when you buy this wine friggin’ everywhere:

The nose: peaches, grapefruit and fucking wet stones in a stream. I used to laugh when I saw this in a wine desciption but I defy you to take this wine to a stream with some stones and not smell the likehood.

On the tongue:

Bright and dry, medium plus acid, Medium alcohol, medium body, medium intensity of flavor with all the same stuff you smell, plus an essence of mmmm happy?

But it’s more than medium happy. It’s happy plus.

WINE OF THE YEAR

The salinity in this wine is the taste of inhaling deeply on the shore the Pacific in Oregon near Haystock Rock. So go there. And see if the shack selling hot dogs and soft serve (in the 90s) is still around.

Oh my this wine is my Wine of The Year.

It is the brainchild of a Californian so mayhaps the Oregon reference is a wee bit northerly but what the hey. I love that memory. I love this wine.

And I am not sure what I could love more than acting, cats, and French fries.

Few things.

Yet this rosé falls into the “one of my top loves”.

O my flip god.

2015 Rhythm Wine Company “The Meadow” Rosé” Terra Alta Vineyard, Lodi

The mystical grape? Graciano.

I. Know. What? Yeah Graciano go with it. They use it in Spain dudes.

This wine is magical.

Can something that you sniff and think “has notes of cat pee?” Be so perfect? Because it is. Tis fun and refined but with just the rough edges you think it is good for you.

Scroll down past my metaphorical bullshit if you just want analytical notes.

My metaphor was to say it is the guy Marion Cotillard’s character in Rust and Bone goes for. Like…it is unlikely. Unlooked for and unexpected. Hard to pin down and buy, sadly for me. Hard to get even at Covell my favorite wine bar–when they are running low they save it for special fans. Like me. I am a special fan. I also dream of playing all the roles Marion Cotillard gets but that is another story to be saved for when you ask me what I’m acting in these days. Please ask. Ahem.

“Being saved for people I like” is least this is what I told by a few people. That is a fact which I believe as it sells the hell out. Special peeps save it for special peeps. Like most unavailable men/wines you will fall in love esp when you lost both your legs in a killer whale snafu.

Shit not the whale snafu part. That’s a film. Based on real events but still.

Oh hell. I wrote Jasper Dickson, the dude behind the wine and he himself said “Sorry, all out but the 2016 vintage…just you wait”. He didn’t phrase it like that but goddamn I am anxiously awaiting.

To the eye: clear, medium plus intensity pink, thin tears

To your nasal receptors: clean,medium intensity, grapefruit, unripe white peach (trust me it is different than other peaches–and in my opinion better) and white nectarine (also superior), apricot, salinity…seashore in the glass and youthful as hell. Like there is some seaweed essence to it.

Oh.

And pipi de chat. Look it up. It works here just go with me on it. Polite phraseology? Asparagus.

On thar taste buds: Dry, medium acid, medium body, medium plus flavor intensity, and that flavor? The one that is medium plus? Let’s go:

Stone fruit that is not terrifically ripe: white peaches people for real. And white nectarines. Please be advised that white nectarines are really the only stone fruit I like (regular peaches? meh) besides cherries. But hell if I don’t enjoy a white nectarine so the fact I love this is sensible. Some citrus. Honeysuckle, wet stones, you guys, some goddamn soggy rocks, giving salinity. I LOVE this kind o’ salinity.  Friggin why cannot “mineral water served on marble” be a legit tasting note? I say it can. So that and so there.

Finish is medium plus. It takes a smooth meandering journey down your esaphagus that changes little but mellows into slightly more slightly more…sweet feeling than you got at first. But maybe that is the salty nature making you thirsty. Making you crave another quaff of that saline goodness.

Conclusions are good. I say very good. I say my fave of the year so there.

Oh the life!

The joy of this bottle.

2015 VieVite Rosé Côtes de Provence

It was not expected that random Wednesday afternoon and provided a needed spark in the midst of my week. I’d forgotten a publicist had promised me a bottle. Which is a back-handed way of me saying that yah I got this wine for free. But my opinions are my own and blah blah blah etc.

Beyond the thrill of random free food…Look at the shape of this guy. What a bottle.

And finally (before opening) the joy of saying “oh yes well, this is a Provençal vin from grapes grown in Domaine Sainte Marie which is near Saint Tropez.” Sounds so chic. Oooh lala indeed.

This wine is as close as I am getting this summer to the Riviera.

So let me not waste any time and get into cracking open this delight.

The grapes: 30% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Carignan

The color: Medium peachy pink, the color of…oh crud i do not have a good metaphor for it.

The nose: Lightly lemon, sweet grapefruit and perhaps mango and mace.

The Palate: Oh hell let us get colon happy and break palate down further:

Sweet: NO

Acidity: Low plus? It exists but dissipates in two blinks.

Body: Not a mesomorph, not an ectomorph. Perhaps a person who is of lighter weight but has no muscle tone so has some curve. Which is to say medium bodied with a certain silkiness and bite.

Flavor: There is pineapple and peach and red cherry. There is white pepper. There is what you would get if you took generic clover honey and took away the sweetness–a pleasant grass to it. A hint of a flower. Maybe honey blossom to go back to the not-sweet-honey comparison. There is some minerality the nose does not belie, but I am glad is there on the tongue.

Finish: medium short. There is a burn that is pleasant in this 13% abv darling.

Not a WSET category but I am adding it–Spritz Factor: There is a hint of spritz to this like–are those bubbles or just pleasant minerality? I am guessing it is the delicious white quartz soil of the Domaine Saint Marie at work.

Cheers, my sweets.