July 13, 2004

Finding a Rosé you can drink

Lorn Razzano

When most people mention "Rosé" wines the first reaction is to looked pained and move on to other subjects.

Rosés (pronounced "rosay") have received the major bad rap in the wine industry for years, deservedly so. Rosé wines were the dumping ground for red wines that could not make the cut in the real world of vino. These wines, at the very beginning of the wine business in California, could be blends of red and white wines, badly cropped red wines with too much acid or weak sisters with no acid to be "served very cold" as written on the label.

The rule of thumb for these cheap cotton candy-like rosé wines was to serve them as close to ice bucket frigid as possible, preferably in a cooler under half a ton of crushed ice next to the Dr. Pepper.

The big rosé wines of the 1950s and 60s was produced by Almaden winery in California. This winery made a Grenache rosé and a sweeter version called Nectar rosé. These wines sold like gangbusters, especially the nectar rosé for those who could not wrap their palate around the big, tannic reds of the day but wanted some color in the wine glass.

In those days the big reds were not watched closely, wine clubs and big league wine writers were well in the future. Wimpy wines were everywhere and rosé wines were the norm in many households.

The big break came in the late 1960s with the Sutter Home winery production of white zinfandel. White zinfandel was a social phenomena that took advantage of the crazy "jogging" era and the intense work out videos of Jane Fonda.

This was the era of the backlash of eating red meat of any sort and the taboo of anything fried or made with any heavy sauces. Accordingly, red wine took a huge dive in the marketplace. At that time there was a frenzy against eating anything associated with red wine.

Sutter Home had the bright idea of leaving the skins (peels) off of the juice early creating a blush color. This served two purposes. Sutter Home got rid of the heavy red zinfandel that would not sell and built a fine cliental of new folks who liked the lighter styled wines.

Brilliant move and very profitable.

My suggestion is to find rosé wines with at least 12.5 percet alcohol. Less than this amount of alcohol gives you a sweet rosé which can be very cloying unless served ice cold. Find the southern French rosé as well as the rosé wines from Italy and Spain. Oregon is coming up with a few as well, especially the rosé from the pinot noir grape.

Rosé wines are wonderful with salmon and other seafood. Watch out of the term "white zinfandel" as these can be very sweet. Again, look for the alcohol levels to assure dryness in Rosé. Have fun, see you in two weeks!

Lorn Razzano has been a commercial wine and spirits judge at state fairs in California, Oregon and Washington and is a co-founder KSOR wine tasting. He was on winery staffs of various Italian and French wineries in the 1970s, and has owned Ashland Wine Cellar since 1980.