By Tom Marquardt And Patrick Darr
With the heat enveloping the country, it’s time to head indoors with a nice glass of rosé. We have been writing about this category all summer, but we continue to come across rosés that are versatile matches to summer fare.
Although the wine can be found for less than $20 a bottle, today we offer some recommendations that are a little more expensive but deliver a lot more flavor.
Here are a few we recently found:
Bouchaine Estate Vin Gris of Pinot Noir 2022 ($29). We loved the juicy Carneros fruit flavor that emerges from this lovely wine. Generous aromas and layers of red berry flavors, including strawberries and cherries. Long in the finish.
Quivira Dry Creek Valley Wine Creek Ranch Rosé 2022 ($30). The complexity of this broadly flavored rosé comes from its blend: grenache, primitivo, counoise, petit sirah and mourvedre. Light salmon color, it has grapefruit and strawberry notes with a hint of orange zest and peach.
Frank Family Vineyards Leslie Rosé 2022 ($50). More complex than most California rosés, this pinot noir rosé vibrant red berry flavors with a dash of citrus.
Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Rosé 2022 ($20). We loved the spirit of this Columbia Valley rosé made from a blend of syrah, grenache, cabernet sauvignon, mourvedre and counoise. Pale in color with bright watermelon and peach flavors.
Conde Valdemar Rioja Rosé 2022 ($18). The blend for this tasty rosé is 85 percent garnacha and 15 percent viura. Very lively with fresh strawberry flavors.
Balletto Rosé of Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2022 ($25). This was a favorite in a flight of rosés we recently tried. Abundant in cherry and citrus fruit with brisk acidity and balance. It was delicious.
Mathilde Chapoutier Cotes e Provence 2023 ($20). Mathilde is the 8th generation in this historic property. The wine has a delicate pink hue, generous citrus aromas with grapefruit and white peach flavors. Good structure and just what you want in a rosé from Provence.
Dutcher Crossing Rosé of Grenache 2022 ($39). Purely grenache, this Dry Creek Valley rosé is exquisite. It is whole-cluster pressed to open up white peach and jasmine aromas. The flavors are long and deep with citrus, tangerine and cherries.
Domaine Gassier Brise de Grenache 2022 ($20). Influenced by the breezes from the Mediterranean, this blend of grenache and mourvedre from the Costieres de Nimes bursts with copious strawberry and cherry flavors.
Conde Valdemar Rioja Rosé 2022 ($18). This is an excellent, juicy blend of garnacha and viura grapes. Rosé petal aromas with fresh raspberry and strawberry flavors.
Clos Ste. Magdeleine Cassis Rosé 2021 ($45). Sipping rosé at a seaside café in Cassis is what comes to mind when we sip this perennial favorite of ours. It’s a beautiful French town along the Med to enjoy rosé at its best. The wine is an unusual blend of ugni blanc, claudette, marsanne and sauvignon blanc.
Montelpulciano d’Abruzo
Most wine drinkers have experienced a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a red wine made from montepulciano grapes from the Abruzzo region of east-central Italy. The region is framed by the Apeninne Mountains to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the east.
The bulk of Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo wines are in the “cheap and cheerful” category ($10-20) and work perfectly for Friday night pizza or hamburgers. Most display smooth tannins and plummy notes as well as a touch of cherry.
The montepulciano grape is not to be confused with two relatively close towns of the same name. Across the Apennine mountains to the northeast of Abruzzo in Tuscany is the town of Montepulciano which produces a well-known red wine from sangiovese grapes.
The wine Vino Nobile di Montepulciano bares no relation to the montepulciano grape. To further confuse consumers, not far to the east of Montepulciano lies the Tuscan town of Montalcino that crafts a famous sangiovese-based wine known as Brunello di Montalcino.
Putting all of this geography aside, we recently had the opportunity to taste two Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines that clearly stood out from the bulk of these wines available. Sometimes spending a bit more for a certain wine can pay off and we think these two did.
Offered in the $30-35 range, we were impressed by their overall quality and ability to deliver on the palate.
Following are our tasting notes:
Codice Vino Torrepasso Montepulciano D’Abruzzo DOC 2018 ($30-35). Very deep and plummy with a hint of cherry and a whisper of oak. Bold and elegant, definitely a big step up from the average.
Vigna Madre Capo Le Vigne Montepulciano D’Abruzzo DOC 2017 ($30-35). A little brighter than the previous example, but a very similar taste profile, with the addition of some leather and dried cherry notes. Reminded us a little of a very well-made Chianti Classico Riserva.
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