"Roooosaay, I love ya, especially today. " Good song that. Rosé by the The
Feeling. I knew what they meant recently. I was working for Rosé de Provence in
London. Nice outdoor event, busy part of London in June. All that was missing
was the weather. Grey, wet, windy and cold. When the weather finally relented, however,
everything made sense. All wine, well most is contextual to a certain degree. Rosé
de Provence perhaps more than most in its specific requirements. Heat and blue
sky essential. And ice cold. No compromise. With those elements Rosé de Provence or any Rosé
with that delightful delicate pinkish hue transforms into a thing of beauty.
Without them, well, you can see the potential, but not much else, a bit like
the England Football team. All the more impressive that delicacy, given the
type of grapes that it tends to come from. Big tough, griselled soldiers like Syrah, Cinsault, Grenache etc.
Wines that pack a punch when following their natural path to powerful red wines bombarded by that hot Mediterranean sun. But no, a delicate Rosé from that
unforgiving climate has none of that. A remarkable transformation. As you may
have read in a previous blog, the key is skin contact. Skin is where the colour
is. So minimal skin contact guarantees that lovely colour. And I repeat,
without the sun and heat there really is no point.
On a recent trip to
Cahors, in south-west France, on a hot day, I had a lovely pale Rosé (made from
Malbec, of course, speciality of the region) and it was perfect. Fresh and
clean with sufficient complexity it was a perfect accompaniment to a Duck Confit.
Happy days. That memory will remain until the sun comes out in London again. Well a lot longer than that actually.
