A Rosé for Any Reason

As these words appear on the page, outside my window the sky has its own idea about what a rosé is. Of course, in the early morning the idea of a rosé is an evolving one. Right now we’re in a Franciacorta rosé moment. As Spring winds down and Summer is setting the stage for its moment, wine lovers love to talk about rosé.

Outside, a helicopter draws away the last of any color from the morning sky. So here we have the elusive moment for rosé. Just when you think its time to sell, drink and share this wine, isn’t autumn announcing its time to put away the toys and get back to the real stuff of wine? Well, here in flyover country we have at least four months before that will happen, and by then who knows what the world will have in store for us?

Copper River salmon are streaming into the local food shops, and at $27 a pound, one cannot always afford a Bandol Rosé from Domaine Tempier. One of my go to wines is the La Scolca Rosa Chiara. I know purists probably won’t agree with me, but they don’t run my life. And I love this wine. It’s lively, had a wonderful color and enough body to go with the salmon I love. Maybe it’s my lack of agenda when it comes to enjoying a wine, but I find pleasure in the enjoyment of this rosé. I love the color. I like the aromas. I like the fruit. And the body. It’s gulpable. And on a picnic in the park, listening to a Beatles or Stones or Texas Swing cover band, it’s pure summer. Not quite tiny bikinis, but enough skin to tempt and tantalize.

Texas foods, like chicken livers and the baked Italian chicken that my aunt taught me to make go well with anything. But if I have a bottle of a deep rosé like one from Abruzzo, Calabria or Sicily, all the better. Three that I like are the Illuminati Campirosa, The Librandi Rosato and the Regaleali Le Rosé. These are more deeply colored and with a fuller body. The spice and the fuller flavors match well with fried foods and again make for a wonderful evening on a porch or a patio, sipping with friends and your favorite warm weather comfort foods.

Seasonal warming brings out the grills and makes for a nice transition to the outdoors, if only for an evening. Here in Texas we are preparing for the onslaught of mosquito season, so while we feast we will also be feasted upon. Fish on the grill reminds me of the Maremma and so a rosé from that area is a great way to sooth oneself. Marco Bacci’s estate near Grossetto, Terré di Talamo, brings some of us his Piano Piano, a Sangiovese/ Cabernet blend (with maybe a little Alicante as well, eh Marco?). Light in color, fresh, in a word, deelish.

Last summer I trekked to Chicago for a few days. One of the highlights of the trip was to make the pilgrimage to one of the great pizza ovens in America, Spaccanapoli. These are pizzas elevated beyond mere comfort food. And to have them with beer, while that might be great, well, we just had to have a little wine. One of the wines I loved with the two pizzas pictured was the Cavalchina Bardolino Chiaretto. Same grapes as Valpolicella (Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara) with a delicate color, light flavors, just one giant bottle of yum.

We started with a sky the color of Franciacorta rosé. For me the morning are serious stuff, so Franciacorta gets the nod for my serious morning rosé fix, if I were on vacation or if I stayed up all night. But a little to the east over in Valdobbiadene the Prosecco folks are jumping on the rosé bandwagon. And our friends at Bisol have come out with this little rosé called Jeio. It’s a perfect wine to sip on the porch while I watch my bees working furiously before the light of the day comes to an end. Here we are, not for me it is time to go to work, selling, not blogging. Getting through another tough month. Ah well, the bees don’t complain, why should I? I’ll just chill a bottle of the Jeio rosé for this evening. That’s reason enough.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy