My wife and I really like rose wine. We drink a lot of it. Probably as much as any other genre, but its impossible to ignore that it never rises to the level of a “wow” wine. I’ve found this holds true even from the more pricey roses from Kermit Lynch. For a long time I have always assumed that it was the economics of selling and making rose: if you cant make much money on it there is zero incentive to really carefully farm the grapes and keep the yields low enough to really concentrate the dry extract. I thought that if only someone used some gifted grapes from a low yield vineyard a great rose could be made.
With that belief in mind I selected some really special Zinfandel grapes this year to make some rose out of. Its a small hillside vineyard in Coloma in El Dorado county that was essentially dry farmed this year. Mice (or whatever) ate through the irrigation lines and that whole section of grapes didn’t get any water from May on. The plants and grapes looked fine the whole time and I was busy so I never got around to fixing the irrigation. The grape berries where tiny and the skins thick and overall yields were very small. I used 1/4 of the grapes to make a red wine and 3/4 to make a rose. I even macerated the rose overnight to really extract some flavor out of it. The red wine from the same grapes shows real promise at this early stage and its genuinely concentrated (in a good way). The rose on the other hand…just tastes like run of the mill rose. Its good, but it doesn’t show any sign at all that its going to be intense and concentrated like the red. Of course wines can surprise after elevage, but I really doubt that this one is going anywhere special despite the excellent starting material.
Obviously Im a bit disappointed but its also intriguing from a geeky perspective. Its natural to ask why rose champagnes can be mind blowing but these still wines can not. I think the answer is in how the rose champagnes are actually made. Someone can correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that rose champagnes are actually mostly Chardonnay with fully macerated red wine blended in. And I think that’s the key point: white wine grapes like Chardonnay can make intensely powerful and concentrated wines despite having no maceration at all but red wine grapes seemingly can not. You can look at the history of Volnay for the same dynamic . For much of its history Volany was prized for making a very light red that was quite rose-like. But again these light style wasn’t from a lack of macerative extraction but rather co-fermenting the Pinot Noir with white grapes. At first glance this doesn’t really make sense, but I think it comes down to selection. For thousands of years white grape strains have been selected based the quality of wine that is made with no maceration. Red wine grapes have not been selected in the same manner since they get macerated usually. As long as a red grape makes good macerated wine its DNA gets to continue via cuttings. Since no red grapes varieties are selected for its ability to make a non or lightly macerated wine, it just genetically doesn’t stand a chance compared to the specially selected white grapes varieties and this would explain the lack of any mind blowing examples. A great single grape variety may just very well be a genetic impossibility with the strains we now have.
This may all be obvious to some, but it was a big eye opener to me and I thought it was worth sharing. I would be interested in hearing some feedback.
The quality of rose Champagne via a via the still versions has always been interesting to me. I was breaking down the cepage of the rose Champagnes on the list at my Champagne bar last week, and the staff was surprised by how Chardonnay-heavy they were.
To clarify my semantics, Ive had some roses that Ive really enjoyed. Loved even. The Bandols from Kermit Lynch come quickly to mind. But assuming those wines are on par with the best that rose can do, I personally don’t think they come near the best white and red wines.
I agree with you. I drink a fair bit of Rose – love it with burgers/pizza/grilled fish in the summer – but I’ve never had a ‘wow’ version, or really anything all that close to it, and that includes LdH, Tempier, etc. Better and worse – even really quite good in the case of LdH – but not grand (except for Champagne as mentioned). They’re nice wines but I think they have a relatively low ceiling, so to speak. Your theory is an interesting one and is intuitively compelling.
Sometimes I drink rose out of tumblers and it just feels right. I cant really explain it but I feel like Im really drinking wine instead of being analytical or uptight about it. Maybe its because Im too uptight and analytical to start with.
Berry - I don’t know that those two producers make “wow” wine. Interesting to be sure, but not exactly mind-blowing.
However, when did you harvest? I talked to several wine makers in Spain about this. If you harvest the red grapes at full maturity, as if you were going to make red wine, and you bleed off some juice, you get a rich but uninspiring rosado. But if you grow and harvest with the intention of making rosado from day one, picking a little earlier perhaps, you end up with a better product. In the case of LdH, they do that and in fact, used to mix some red and white. That’s not allowed now even though it’s “traditional”.
If you had the 2007 Tempier Rose in its youth, you would change your mind That wine was amazingly good, and ranked right up there with any great white or red wine. They don’t do it in many vintages, but it can happen.
Yes. Rosé almost always is a humble wine in the best way, and a useful reminder for me that wine should be joyful first and foremost, and grandiose on occasion.
To a point you made about Champagne, there are some rare versions of rosé made via early skin contact (saignée) instead of later addition of still red wine, but they are relatively rare, and Chardonnay remains in the mix.
Have you had Valentini? To my tastes, all three wines are “wow” wines – in part because they are head and shoulders above anyone else’s work with the same varieties of grapes (Emidio Pepe is the only producer even in range).
Ive had Tempier a number of times but I don’t remember the vintages. I thought it was great but not earth shattering like Krug rose can be for example. Not even close.
I’d add Chateau Simone’s version to Valentini’s in the pantheon of “great” rose, a pleasure to drink with the right food and a wine that consistently punches above its (nominal rose) weight class.
I agree with Barry. Never had a Wow rose and I have had the ones mentioned above. Very good, sure. Interesting? Yes, especially Lopez Heredia. But not a wow. I wonder about that as well. Good for you Barry to experiment with it.
Interesting point about Krug as, yes, there are some WOW rose Champagnes. I don’t think I ever had one that was better than the white version though and certainly not enough to justify the price disparity. JM2C
I’ve been wowed by some Sancerre rosé (F. Cotat, P. Cotat and J. Mellot) and the best champagne rosé I’ve had yet is Fleury’s Rosé de Saignée with no red wine blended in…incredibly vinous, mineral and packed with fruit.
Yup. I love rose as much for what it isn’t as I do for what it is. It isn’t super complex. I don’t have to think about it. It should be crisp, deliciously and gulpable. If the wine is too hot, I don’t feel too bad about throwing a couple ice cubes in it.
On really hot days, pouring cheap rose over ice with some sparkling water and a squeeze of lemon is perfect. It’s the only type of wine I’d ever treat in this way.
As far as your zinfandel goes, how do you KNOW it will be just a ‘ho hum’ wine? It is still in its infancy - do you not believe it may develop further over the next few months and then in bottle for awhile?
And the concept of good versus great with regards to rose is also interesting. I agree that some of the Tempiers have been spectacular, and I would say great in relation to roses. But I for one don’t really want to ‘compare’ roses versus red versus white - I see there to be distinctions among the three general categories myself.
Berry, I also am a firm believer that some varieties just work better for rose than others. For instance, smell most syrahs post fermentation and you realize that wines made from this variety need TIME to develop. They are not as ‘naturally attractive’ to me as is grenache or pinot, post-fermentation, or as ‘interesting’ as my rose grape of choice, Mourvedre . . .
That wine was amazingly good, and ranked right up there with any great white or red wine. They don’t do it in many vintages, but it can happen.