AUGUST DIVINE WINE CLUB NEWS -- THE ROSE SEARCH

It's the "dog days" of summer, and a time when many of our members are off gallivanting in some exotic location (like France or, even more exotic, Atlanta) or dealing with various priorities. Luckily, a few of us were around to participate in our search for an acceptable rose wine. We tasted 4 rose wines at our meeting and I have to say right off the bat, I immediately noticed how our palates have grown. For one thing, we were able to better describe smells and tastes, and for another, we could be very clear about what we liked or didn't like, and why. It was a very interesting exercise. Here go the results, in the Olympic spirit (thanks for the suggestion, Arthur!):

THE GOLD:

Turkey Flats Vinyards 2007 Rose -- I picked this one because of its origin, Australia's Barossa Valley, and because it was made partly from shiraz grapes. I figured we couldn't go wrong with that combo, and my theory proved correct. This rose was a meritage of 62% grenache, 22.3% shiraz, 9.7% cabernet, and 6% dolcetto grapes. On the nose, we picked up a lot of raspberry, and it smelled rather hot. The alcohol content was 13% but it smelled and tasted like more. On the palate, more berrylike fruits and more alcohol, but most surprisingly, the mid-palate was actually citrusy, a theme that would continue throughout the tasting. This rose was full-bodied, which we appreciated, and we liked it more the more we tasted. Definitely the winner among the bunch.

THE SILVER:
Paul Jaboulet Aire Parallel 45 Cote du Rhone Rose 2007 -- A great choice made by Mom, since we'd established we do like the Cote reds. On the nose, perfume, and hints of peach and strawberry. The palate was fruity, though not quite as full-bodied as the Aussie rose (surprising for a French wine). Most interesting was the finish, which was very much like sucking a lemon peel. You know when you've eaten all the fruit and there's nothing left but the white part and the peel itself? It was like that. A very interesting rose.

THE BRONZE:
Vitiano 2006 Rosato Umbria -- This Italian rose was the first one we tasted and based on this we thought we were in for a disappointing meeting. The nose was pure strawberry, very pleasant. But the palate was a letdown: nice fruit up front, but no mid-palate at all and a sharp bitterness on the back end. It wasn't a pleasant bitterness, either, like the lemon peel in the Cote du Rhone rose, it was just a betterness that lingered. We found it drinkable, certainly, but we thought it was too watery and I did not like the bitterness.

THE AGONY:
Oveja Negra 2006 Rose, Central Valley, Chile -- I got this as a bonus, because we'd never tried a Chilean wine before and the region is said to produce some awesome wines. Right off the bat we noticed this rose featured a darker color than the others, almost ruby. The nose was shockingly...vegetal! I picked up green peppers right away, which I thought was fascinating. The nose was straight grassy. Mom's description, which was spot on: "It's like driving through upstate NY at night with foliage whizzing by the open car windows." Clearly she should be writing this blog! Anyway, the letdown was in the taste. I couldn't pick up anything but alcohol. It certainly wasn't berry-like, which is what we expected. I suspect the taste was vegetal as well, and since we are so not used to that we couldn't identify what we were tasting. I tried it again tonight hoping the taste would have benfited from being open so long before sealing the bottle last night, but I still can't ID the taste, except to say "alcoholy." Arthur has 2 suggestions: one was that we try more Chilean wines to figure out what's going on with them, and the other was to actually go to Chile and bomb the place in the interests of national tasting security. We settled on the first suggestion, so look for Chile to be added to the agenda for the next meeting.

That's it! So we do have a couple of go-to roses to enjoy for what's left of the summer. Time to look forward to fall, which features cooler temperatures, and the return of two things we love: red wine and football! Look for updates on the next meetings on our calendar, as I'm pretty certain that dates will have to change. Until then, happy sipping!