Claire’s notes:
Color: Pink, peach, honey.
Smell: Grass, alcohol, nectarine, cheese (blue or Roquefort), apricot, chamomile.
Food: Nice complement to my summer pasta, tomatoes, garlic, fresh herbs, feta, provolone, light dish.
Overall: Good beginning of the evening wine. I think it would be lovely to serve as a first course wine with some olives and hard cheese, or even some nectarines, which it really reflects for me.
Now, back to me. I decided to drink this wine with a proscuitto sandwich from Say Cheese in Cole Valley I picked up on my way home from a certain very cool tasting I attended today. The pork and pale pink colored wine seemed destined for each other and my stomach, and, I must say, both went down swimmingly.
The wine is a lot of what Southern French rose ought to be; very pale in color. This one is like a new copper penny or deep orange cantaloupe color—beautifully perfumed and light on the palate. This one’s got two of the three down: it’s gorgeous in color—I’ve rarely seen roses in this orange-y color—and got great aromas, but it’s a little high in alcohol which takes away from the liveliness on the palate I really love.
Lovely aromas of orange Julius, licorice, brown sugar, roasted nuts, and baked apricot float from the glass. Then, apricot and some citrus squirt on the palate, but not a lot else. I think this wine is fabulous for what it is—a $12 bottle with a fantastic nose—but would be all that much better with a more refreshing palate. I think a lot of this has to do with the climate in the South of France—it’s bloody hot there! This wine has high alcohol as a result.
But I still really enjoyed it. The color just can’t be beat. With pork or pink eye, it’s just the thing.
