Rosé for Summer Quaffing
By Mike Sherwood & Jean Yates
May/June 2006
As spring reveals longer days and the
deck becomes more inviting to stay and linger into a warm, dusky
night, I love the taste of a cold, frosted glass of a dry Rosé wine
and simple foods for hotter weather.
This is the time of the year when big,
tannic red wines, my favorite throughout the late fall, winter
and early spring, become too heavy in hot weather and don’t
particularly compliment the lighter fare served on patios and decks
throughout the late spring and summer. The best wine to pair with
a cold pasta salad and a gorgeous sunset, as the day weans from
direct sunlight to that amber glow of the evening, is a dry Rosé
wine.
This isn’t the pink or “white” Zinfandel
that many consumers associate with light, cloyingly sweet pinkish
wines. And, the problem with marketing a dry Rosé is that
white Zinfandel drinkers think it is too dry, and many serious
wine drinkers scoff at a “salmon-colored wine” as being
too sweet and lacking any character or oomph. It is a tough wine
to sell because the mainstream American palate has not embraced
this wine for summer sipping.
Rosé is the French word for “pink.” The
wine is made from red grapes, but the skins are removed early in
the process, resulting in a light pink color. Rosés can
be produced from just about any grape, including Grenache, Zinfandel,
Merlot, Tempranillo, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and grape blends, such
as Grenache, Syrah and Viognier.
The wines have flavors of strawberry,
raspberry, cherry and even plum, with some spice, a light complexity
of flavors and a balance of acidity that works very well with food.
Although I am a fan of aging wines, Rosé wines should be
consumed within two years or less—don’t age these wines
or you will lose the fruit. They should be consumed young and chilled,
but not iced.
Oregon Winermakers' "Inside" Wine
Oregon Pinot noir makers have produced "pink
wine" from Pinot noir for years for their own consumption.
It was typically made from the "free run" juice that
comes off the grapes first. Winemakers rewarded their workers with
bottles of the wine, or kept it for themselves. What you might
not know is that many Pinot makers' preferred summer wine,
served cold, is a dry Oregon Rosé, often their own.
Gradually, winelovers have caught onto this
"insider" wine, and a few wineries release their "pink wine" for
sale. This year, for the first time, Mike Etzel is offering his
own Rosé, the Belle Soeurs Rosé 05, and its availability has started
a run on all the few good Oregon Rosés available. Beaux Freres
is best known for their $75 Estate Pinot noir that has received
95 points from Wine Spectator for the last three vintages. When
Mike offers something new, people all over the country stand up
and listen.
Dry Oregon Rosés offer fresh fruit
flavors of strawberries, cherries, raspberries, with hints of ruby
red grapefruit, watermelon, and spice flavors like thyme, cinnamon
or ginger. A good rosé will have a nice acid balance with
delicate fruit flavors. The clean, fresh flavors are followed by
a crisp mouth feel. Rosé wines are best served slightly
chilled, similar to a white wine. A cooled wine focuses the flavors
and keeps this wine crisp and refeshing.
Rosés
are excellent food wines due to the balance of acidity and fruit and a light
to medium body. They are a great companion to shrimp, scallops, crab dishes,
cold meats and meat salads, chicken salad, pasta salad, barbecued chicken,
grilled halibut, pan-seared fish, paella or salmon in parchment
paper. In the South of France, rosés are famously associated
with salads, especially salad nicoise from the Cote d’Azure.
This is one of the few times you will find a wine paired very successfully
with a salad. Check out the recipes at the end of this article
for some foods to serve with Rosé wines.
They go fast. Carpe diem. Grab
them while you can.
Top Rated, Recommended Oregon Dry Rosés
Winters
Hill Rosé Pinot noir 05
$13.10/$14.55
Winner, Best of Class and
Gold Medal, Northwest Wine Summit. Deep strawberry color,
classic Pinot Noir fruit flavors in a light summer wine. Good
structure and long, crisp finish make this a perfect match for
salads, a cheese plate, cold cuts or barbequed chicken.
Territorial
Rosé Pinot noir 05
$11.47/$12.75
Most popular dry Rosé at Avalon's
store, year after year. Immediate room-filling aromas of grapefruit,
tangerine and Rosé petal, followed by crisp fruit flavors and
a pleasing, palate-cleansing acidity. Great on its own as a chilled,
summer afternoon quaff, and a wonderful food companion. So refreshing
and delicious with barbequed chicken straight off the grill.
Van
Duzer Pinot noir Rosé 05
$13.45/$14.95
Just wonderful for summer- a
dry Rosé of Pinot noir, flavors of tart pie cherries, summer herbs,
caraway, and fresh strawberry on the finish. Have this wine chilled
on a hot summer day with barbequed chicken and a big salad, and
you'll think you've gone to heaven. Just delish and highly recommended.
-jy
Hamacher Rosé 05
This wine is what summer is all about! It holds a beautiful salmon color, and
is richly textured from barrel fermentation and stirring the lees. It has great
acidity and should be served COLD! It's built for slaking the summer heat and
bringing smiles back to parched lips. Very limited.
Elk Cove Rosé 05
Coming soon
Soter
Vineyards Rosé of Pinot Noir "Firefly" Yamhill-Carlton
04 $18.00/$20.00
From the famed Tony Soter of Etude Winery, and now his own Oregon
Soter Vineyards. Full of fresh floral and bright red fruit aromas,
our rosé of Pinot Noir is weighty and juicy, perfect for a
summer afternoon garden party. Enjoy it with Provençal fare,
such as game hens grilled with herbes de Provence and brushed with
olive oil and fresh garlic.
Three Methods of Making Rosé
Maceration Method: After the grapes
are crushed, they're moved to a large stainless-steel vat, where
the juice stays in contact with
the grape skins. After the desired color is achieved, the juice
is drained off the skins into another vessel to ferment. Thick-skinned
grapes, such as Syrah, Cabernet, or Zinfandel, have shorter skin
contact time, while thinner-skinned grapes, such as Grenache
or Pinot Noir, are left on the skins longer. The longer the maceration
time, the more color, flavor, and character are imparted to the
finished wine.
Saignée, or "bled" method: Saignee,
pronounced “sonyay”, is a French term meaning “bled” and
this relates to the running off, or bleeding, a certain amount
of first-run juice from red grapes.The grapes and skins -- usually
a blend of dark-skinned, intensely flavored grapes that
would make a big, powerful red wine--are crushed and left in
a large, stainless-steel vat. After an hour or two, a certain
amount of juice is drawn off or "bled," and fermented
into a delicate rosé (the juice that stays behind is made
into red wine). Saignée allows a winemaker the option
of making a delicate rosé wine from intensely flavored
grapes (it also concentrates both the color and the flavor in
the juice that remains with the skins). The resulting rosé will
be complex and flavorful, but lighter than the resulting red
wine would be.
Blending red and white wines
together: Blending is the way rosé Champagne
is often made, and in France, that's the only time blending red
and white wines is legal.
Recipes
Here are three classic summer recipes
that are traditionally served with dry Rosé. Classic Bruschetta
This is the most wonderful appetizer during fresh tomato season.
Try it and you'll be hooked!
10 plum tomatoes, diced (seed these if you prefer less liquid)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
French or Italian bread slices
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients
except bread; set aside. Toast slices of French or Italian bread.
Serve tomato mixture,
room temperature in a bowl with a spoon and lots of toasted bread
slices.
Salmon in Parchment
This recipe uses sweet local onions to caramelize and currents
for color, texture and added sweetness. These small parchment
paper packets, once filled with fish, are called papillotes.
1/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup dried currants
2 large sweet onions such as Walla Walla or Vidalia
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
four 24- by 16 1/2-inch pieces parchment paper
four 6-ounce salmon fillets – King salmon if you can get
it
1/4 cup dry white wine
In a small saucepan warm brandy
over moderate heat and add currants. Remove pan from heat. Let
mixture stand, covered, 20
minutes. ° ° Halve onions lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick
slices. In a large skillet heat oil over moderately high heat
until hot but not smoking and cook onions, stirring occasionally,
until softened, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate and
cook onions, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 15 minutes
more. Add currant mixture, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper
to taste and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to a
bowl and cool. Caramelized onions may be made 1 day ahead and
chilled, covered.
° Preheat oven to 475°F. Fold each parchment piece in half
crosswise and cut each piece to make a large rounded heart shape.
(Folded piece should be at least 2 inches larger all around than
salmon fillet.) Open a parchment "heart" and put a
salmon fillet in middle of one side. Sprinkle fillet with 1 tablespoon
wine and salt and pepper to taste.
° Spread one fourth caramelized onions on fillet and fold other
side of parchment over. Beginning at bottom end of center crease,
in overlapping 1-inch segments fold edges of parchment, crimping
as you go, to form a tight seal. Make 3 more papillotes in same
manner. Papillotes may be made up to this point 4 hours ahead
and chilled, covered.
° Put papillotes on a large baking sheet and bake 9 to 15 minutes,
or until a skewer inserted through parchment and into fish slides
out smoothly. Serve papillotes immediately, cutting them open
at table. Makes four servings.
This recipe comes to us from
the Winslow Way Café on
Bainbridge Island WA and was inspired by Joyce Goldstein of the
long defunct Square One, in San Francisco.
Grilled Tuna Nicoise Salad
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Vineyard in Southern France |
Arrange this classic
south-of-France salad on one large platter. Accompany it with
crusty French bread and a lively Rosé.
Here is what you need:
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound fresh tuna steaks, cut 1-inch thick
(you can use two 3 oz. cans of
chunk tuna or albacore instead – preferably
oil-packed)
1-1/2 pounds red-skinned potatoes,
cut into 1/4-inch slices
8 ounces green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups sliced romaine lettuce or one large head
of Boston-lettuce
leaves, washed and dried
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata or nicoise-type olives
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
4 hard-cooked eggs, cut into wedges
2 teaspoons snipped fresh tarragon
optional: 2 Tbs. capers and
one small tin of anchovy fillets.
° In a screw-top jar combine balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar,
the 1/4 cup olive oil, the mustard, and garlic; cover and shake
well. Season to taste with sugar, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
° Place fish in a shallow dish; set aside. Pour 1/4 cup of the
vinaigrette over fish, turning to coat. Cover and marinate at
room temperature for 20 minutes, turning fish once. Drain fish,
discarding marinade.
° Meanwhile, in a saucepan cook potatoes in a small amount of
boiling salted water for 10 minutes, adding green beans for the
last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and cool slightly. Place potatoes
and beans in a bowl and toss with olive oil. Spread vegetables
in a single layer in a grill basket.
° Lightly grease the rack of a gas grill. Preheat grill. Reduce
heat to medium. Place fish and basket of vegetables on the grill
rack directly over heat. Cover and grill until fish just flakes
easily when tested with a fork and vegetables are tender, turning
once halfway through grilling. (Allow 8 to 12 minutes for fish
and about 10 minutes for vegetables.) Remove from grill. Cut
fish diagonally into 1/4-inch slices.
° In a large bowl toss together romaine, cherry tomatoes, olives,
and red onion. Divide among 4 dinner plates. Arrange the fish,
potatoes, beans, and eggs on top of romaine mixture. Drizzle
with the remaining vinaigrette. Sprinkle with tarragon. Makes
6 servings.
° To cook fish and vegetables on a charcoal grill, prepare as
above. Place fish and basket of vegetables directly over medium
coals. Cook as above, turning once. Serve as above.
Note: You can use salmon for this salad to lend a Pacific Northwest
note to the dish. It will take you about 20 minutes to marinade
the fish and 10 minutes to grill it. Assembly is really quite
quick. Lay a bed of lettuce down and layer the hard-boiled eggs,
ripe red tomatoes, green beans and black olives and dressed on
the top with tuna.
About Michael Sherwood
Michael Sherwood is an Oregon original - your modern day Renaissance man.
He’s done more interesting jobs than most of us – FM radio personality, commercial
logger, commercial fisherman, rock band promoter, neighborhood advocate,
energy conservation expert, arts festival coordinator, software developer,
non-profit executive, beer and wine guy and land use planner.
After 10 years developing software in Seattle, Mike moved back to Portland
and was soon drafted to be the first Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers
Guild, a fledgling non-profit trade organization, which he helped turn into
one of the most dynamic small brewer associations in North America.
All the while he was managing the affairs of
the states craft brewers, he was not so secretly a wine lover and worked providing
marketing assistance to a local winery. Beverages are 'in his blood' as his
family owned a beer and wine distributorship in the 60’s and 70’s in Roseburg.

Today Mike runs a wine sales, marketing and technology
consulting business called Arbre which provides branding and sales support
for wineries large and small. He has also created the Internets first truly
virtual stealth restaurant and underground wine bar called Sub
Rosa. We liked his mix of wine savvy and irreverent humor so much,
we hired him to write for Avalon.
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