Bottom Line/Personal: There was a while there when Rosé was passé. How about now? Is Rosé socially acceptable?
Amy Dixon: Absolutely. Rosé is hot. It’s been hot for about, I would say, three or four years, when people finally discovered that pink does not mean sweet. Rap stars and people like Jay-Z drinking on his beautiful yacht in the south of France didn’t hurt Rosé’s image either. It became very hip and cool to drink crisp, refreshing, light, dry rosé.
Provence is sort of the mecca or the hub for high-quality Rosé, but it’s produced in very good quality all over the world now—everywhere, including Australia, South America, all over France, all over Spain, Italy, California. Almost everybody’s making Rosé now.
Bottom Line: When do you drink Rosé.
Dixon: You want to drink it fresh and young. Rosé is generally not built to age. Rosé is actually a red wine for white wine drinkers, which is really, really cool. It’s basically a red wine that the skin contact has only happened for a few hours, so you don’t get a deep red wine—you get a slightly pink red wine.
It has all the wonderful characteristics of food pairing that you would get from a red wine, say a Cabernet or a Syrah or a Grenache, but it’s light and crisp and refreshing, and you can chill it for the summer. So it’s a wonderful alternative, and you can buy it from just about anywhere.
Bottom Line: So it gets paired with meals, or it can be just as kind of a light, refreshing beverage?
Dixon: That depends upon the grape variety that it comes from. Certain Rosés are going to be heavier than other Rosés. It depends upon the grape that it comes from, whether it’s Syrah, Merlot, Grenache, any of those grape varieties, and where it comes from. Color is a good barometer. Sometimes the Rosé can be bright hot pink, and sometimes it can be a very pale, salmon-y color. But really, ask good questions of the retailer and they’ll steer you right.
Bottom Line: In fact, there’s an array of Rosés. Again, in the old days, it was like Rosé was a step above a wine spritzer.
Dixon: Yeah.
Bottom Line: But now actually, the Rosés are…
Dixon: Come from a variety of grapes.
Bottom Line: A variety of grapes so that it can be dry, it can be sweet, it can be just like any other reds or whites.
