Between Dr. Deb's over at Good Wine Under $20 and the Catavino Forum, the Roses' keeps flowing at our house in the evening. The evenings are getting much warmer here in Key West, as you can tell by the condensation of the bottle I am trying to photograph. The color's of the Roses' are just beauteous, but can be hard to photograph. You really want to highlight their colors and, depending on where you take the photo and what type of lighting you have, it can be tricky.
The Rose' of choice last evening was the Louis Bernard Cotes-du-Rhone 2005 Rhone Rose' Wine from Orange, France. The grapes that comprise this wine are Granche, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault. It had 13% alcohol which was not overpowering as you might think. It was nice and soft on the palate. After popping the cork, I was truly taken in by the wonderful bouquet of raspberries and strawberries that greeted my nose. The color of the wine was a soft pink with a touch of ruby, which you can see both colors in the two photos I took.
I did not taste this wine until I finished with my outdoor shots, and by then the wine had warmed up a bit. So my first taste of this Rose' was probably at 65 degrees. The strawberry flavor was the most prominent flavor, but the alcohol was starting to surface a bit. I took the bottle back in the house and stuck it in the freezer to cool it down again and I am so glad I did. The temperature was 50-54 degrees at my next taste and OH! what a difference that made. All of the luscious flavors of strawberry and raspberry now jumped out of the glass and the alcohol was much softer at this time.
I highly recommend this wine for the start of the end of your day. Just be sure to serve it well chilled!!!!
Cheers!
5 comments:
Looks like you're really getting out in front of the rosé rush that is sure to come once May's Wine Spectator comes up with a cover story on rosés!
I had a question for you about temperature - are you guessing at the temperatures that you mention, or do you have a thermometer of some kind? I've never tried determining the temps of my wines, but I've thought about it, as I'm not so sure I *really* know what the appropriate serving temps are for various wines.
Getting so anal as to take your wine's temp before drinking it probably sounds horribly wine snobbish, and I really don't mean to be a wine snob! I would just be interested in how much the right temp helps out with the taste of the wine...
Hi Nate - I hate to say this but yes, I have taken the temp of the wine, just to see if there really is a difference. Being where it is hot most of the time, I drink mostly white and rose' wine. One night I had a white wine really chilled and when I tasted it, it seemed, weak. Not thinking much about it, I sat my glass down and it got warmer. When I took my next taste, the fruit seemed to bloom. So started my experimenting with temps. Now I do not do this every time I drink wine, or my friends will really think I have gone over the edge more than they do now. But when I am in my "tech" mode, look out. Hope this helps!
Heh - I'm glad to hear that actually. I've been thinking of experimenting with wine temperature myself, especially as summer time rolls around to the DC region when, like you, whites and rosés will be the order of the day.
Do you just use a regular thermometer, or did you get one of those kinds you can slap on the bottle?
Hey Nate - I just use one of those instant read cooking thermometers. But now that you mentioned the slap on ones, hum, I may have to get one of those and give it a shot. Let me know how you come out with using the temps for taste. I am curious to hear your opinion!
Ok, so my wife and I just did a Catavino-inspired rosé tasting, where we pitted a Spanish rosé vs. a French Cotes-du-Rhone rosé. I'll try to post on this tonight or tomorrow on Vinvenio. But the point here is that you inspired me to dig through my wine drawer, and lo-and-behold I own a wine thermometer! I'm sure it must have been some stocking stuffer for the wine lover sort of thing.
Anyway, after photographing the bottles outside in the sun, our bottles were at 54 degrees F. We found that these two rosés tasted better once they'd warmed to about 58 - 60 degrees F.
Horrendously wine snobby, I know - there is no way I'd ever shove a thermometer into a bottle of wine when we had guests for fear of making everyone laugh at our geekiness, but it really does make a difference! Thanks for the inspiration to break in my wine thermometer I never knew I had ;-)
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