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.

Rosé indoors al fresco

Skip to the end for this entry’s challenge.

Mouton gets the award for lushest swag of the year:

The hearty canvas of the bag they sent me with the accompanying insulated sleeve and picnic throw scream “I am solid! But also pink! So!”

And so.

So I had myself a little indoor picnic because I like to celebrate small goth victories like the clouds of Los Angeles’ June gloom.

Not pictured: pistachio cake with pistachio frosting, lemon curd, and milk crumb topping.

Oh wait here’s a picture. It’s ugly though.

There’s a reason this blog is called Scrumptious GRUEL:

I could go on about the marvelous things I make from the Momofuko Milk Bar cookbook but let’s get to the rosé.

Here’s what you’ll feel in a bottle of Mouton Cadet Rosé:

Raspberries and stones. running streams. Strong love. An embrace with vigor. Which is my favorite type of embrace.

Vigorous.

Damn that’s a great word.

More stony up front perhaps a masquerade of the masculinity assumed with Bordeaux yet label and swag is pink but masculine pink and I do maintain real men wear pink.

And so do real goths.

Humble request for someone to make a Venn diagram of goth, toxic masculinity, pink, mental health, and…last one is your call.

Go!

Just for fun

Holy heck I miss carefree rosé. So here you go.

Rosé I was gonna refuse to think about but here we are I’m giving it a brain cell. One cell. Just know my brain contains multitudes.

2016 Chateau D’Or et de Gueules Rosé

Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Syrah, Grenache

Okay skip ahead for the irreverent analysis sweet sweet content. BUT!!!!! because I’m gearing up to start WSET diploma:

Eye: light salmon, quick tears

Nose: stone, strawberry and honeydew

Tongue: dry, medium acid, medium alcohol (checked it is 12.5 abv), light body, strawberries, raspberries, dry white stones on a bleak plateau (no kidding), and someone stepped on a rose nearby. Finish is quick but no bother because this wine is for rejoicing.

Carry on BUT:

Here are your wine metaphors:

This rosé is a Carl’s Jr. order of fries. It’s not McDonalds. But it is FRIES and they are good and fill that fry bill. So it is with refreshing Provençal rosé. Night boos.

Wine Of late

Dudes these things just…materialize. At my door. And I try them and much of the time I am like “meh” and sometimes I’m like “hey fella” and occcaaaaaaasionally I’m like we can have a third date and that’s this. Our relationship is growing. Sorry for my singleton wine metaphors. I mean I’m not marrying this wine but I would take it to dinner with the fam.

J Vineyards and Winery Brut Rosé

It is bubbly. Of course. But nutty and yeasty and berry-y. And good and refreshing. If I want to drink a bubbly well….gotta say I’ve been learning this love language with the J Winery bubblies. Because I don’t tend to go out of my way for a sparkling wine but they have sent me quite a few and I’ve tasted A LOT of sparkling wine but consistently I have enjoyed the J offerings so who knows.

All of which to say is get a fucking J sparkler, if you are inclined. I am.

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.

Can I not?

…interrupt the Beaujolais crus series for a canned treat?

…drink out of a bottle…or a can?

…drink pink but wear black lipstick?

…watch Clue on repeat?

…make up my own lyrics?

…ENJOY a pink canned wine spritzer thingamabob?

…especially as I got a four-pack in the mail from the generous Gallo folks?

I CAN. I do what I want and what I wanted was a cool bev bordering on uncouth and dessert all in one fell swoop.

Short version:

This tastes of peppy berries and sugar and SweetTarts and fucking teenage happiness. It is a sugar sweet (not even BITTERsweet) Joy of Life Just Because Swill.

I don’t review every drink that arrived at my door. I review this because it is fucking fun and some of you including me may like it. 

BEHOLD: Barefoot Refresh Rosé Spritzer

The website will show a picture of a bottle but this stuff is canned. Could I drink a load of it? Nah. Could I drink this the same way I used to drink Mike’s Hard Lemonade at barbecues? Heck yah.

Could I drink it when needing to be ironically goth thus sporting chains and too much black eyeliner on both eyes and lips but wearing and drinking pink? Fuck yah.

Could I give it to my friend who drinks sweet stuff who likely likes Barefoot’s other pink bevs? Bloody hell yes.

So this can tells you what you are gonna taste because presumably if you bought it you are not going to be slowly sniffing and swirling but gulping but HOPEFULLY appreciating. The can states: “Aromas of raspberry and pomegranate. Enjoy at the beach a backyard BBQ or any barefoot occasion”.

No progress sipping at any of those places but at home I’m always gonna be barefoot and lemme tell you that works too.

 

SPRING (no less dramatic than winter) comes rosé!

Before I go on, let me give my recommendation. If you see 2015, nab it. Drink it. Love the hell out of it. That being said that advice expires in maybe a year and the following is also so truly worthy:

2016 Chateau de Trinquevedel Tavel

Fucking ephemeral beverages. You can LOVE one vintage and then the next vintage you adore ever so slightly less. But then you can’t source old bottles because wine is a living being. Those old bottles might not continue to stand up.

But if you trust the winemaker you can trust that the future vintages will be delights in their own right.

Fucking youth focused culture. For wine. For anyone.

Actually that’s inaccurate, as wine’s rep amongst the misguided masses is that older is better. But that is not so for rosé, generally.

Still, at this Chateau even if the older ones…expire…you’ve faith they will continue the good work.

The 2015 vintage had me like “FUCK that is still one of the BEST rosés”

The 2016 I liked a tad less. It smelled like more, but lacked the linen complexity of of 2015. Yet I still thought of it this: 

“It has all the elements in a perfect balance, all I miss is starched napkins!”

Then I thought “good golly I’m an idiotic snob.”

But I can’t FUCKING wait to continue to taste the Trinquevedel as the years go by. It is a special wine methinks–and affordable too!

 I have had one bottle of 2015 and a couple of 2016 left and I need the discipline to save one of each to compare when 2017 surfaces. 

So! The side by side of what I have. Well duh yah because I think 2015 may be a smidgen better that inhibits me from judging 2016 accurately.

Oh. Well.

But okay. I will stop waxing poetic on the other years so we can FRIGGIN’ REVEL in the 2016.

Lemme give the 2016 stats:

To the eye: clear, medium plus salmon (nearly peach perfect) and medium tears.

To my nose: clean, medium, strawberries, white cherries, strawberries. And stone. White stone. Youthful.

The most of all important tongue!!!!:

Dry, medium acid, medium minus minus tannin (Iget a hint), Medium alcohol, (13.5%abv which technically is barely medium plus but to me it is medium feeling), body  is medium plus for a rosé!!! Flavor intensity medium plus with flavor of     white and yellow peaches, oak bough, raspberries, stewed strawberries and  rhubarb pie. 

Finish: medium plus medium play take that to mean what you will

This wine goes on!

Join me and we will revel. And since I’m a woman wine professional I call reveling work. Work for the Friggin’ Win.

Lurve y’all! I promise to go back to love but right now I’m in a lurve phase.

Cheers dahhhhlings.

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. 💕💕💕💕💕❤️❤️🍷🍷🍷

 

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