Rosado -An Overlooked Pleasure
By Gerry DawesDeep in the hearts of most inveterate wine lovers lies a passion for rosé wines, though it usually doesn't come up for discussion unless the subject is broached in trusted company. Considered suitable for picnics and light lunches - and also unfairly associated with blush Zinfandel - only rarely will some daring but knowledgeable soul order a bottle of good, dry Spanish rosado, French rosé or Italian rosato to accompany a more elaborate meal.
Ana Fabiano, a noted Hudson Valley-based wine and travel consultant, is particularly fond of Spanish rosados and is not unwilling to say so. "One of Spain's best-kept secrets is its rosado wines," she asserts. "Every time I take the initiative to order one, everyone seems happy I did." But Fabiano admits that the rosé wine category remains "a kind of foggy twilight wine zone, too often forgotten even at a spring or summertime luncheon or brunch, when a Spanish rosado can be a perfect choice."
When several other wine professionals were polled about rosés in general and Spanish rosados in particular, a spate of similarly enthusiastic responses followed. And although sales in the rosé genre have been falling for years, their comments validate a classic wine that has been largely ignored by importers, distributors, retailers and even chefs and restaurateurs.
Even though American diners may have difficulty ferreting out a respectable rosé on a wine list, John Mariani, the restaurant columnist for Esquire, is a dedicated fan. Many of his most memorable pairings, however, have been enjoyed abroad. "In Provence, rosés in summer are as welcome as the perfume of flowers," he says. He is also fond of Spanish rosados, ordering them at tapas bars in San Sebastián, seaport eateries in Mallorca and seafood restaurants in La Barceloneta (Barcelona's seaside barrio). "I recently had a lovely rosado with a multicourse tasting menu at Abac in Barcelona," he recalls, that underscored rosado's versatility with more sophisticated food.
Here in the states, Marichu, a New York City haven for Basque cuisine, proves Mariani's point. Co-owned by Chef Teresa Barrenechea (author of The Basque Table cookbook) and her husband, Raynold Von Samson, the restaurant is among the country's finest Spanish dining establishments. Von Samson, who authors the wine list, is so confident in rosado's range that he offers diners six stellar labels: Chivite and Señorio de Sarria from Navarra and CUNE, Marqués de Cáceres, Muga and Viña Tondonia from La Rioja.
"The wine world focuses on red and white," Von Samson observes. "People simply tend to forget about rosados, but they are wonderful wines with plenty of personality and many are quite distinctive. I like rosados because you can drink them cold, just like a white wine, but they are drier and often have better fruit and structure than many whites, and they are usually more refreshing than a red."
For the uninitiated, Von Samson says, "rosados always seem to come as a welcome surprise - one of their biggest attractions is their gorgeous color."
Indeed, these brilliantly hued Spanish jewels, which are unequivocally among the world's best rosé wines, run the spectrum from the palest salmon to strawberry pink to deep ruby to a rusty onion-skin. They generally exhibit fresh, clean, charming aromas of cherry, strawberry or raspberry. The best Spanish rosados do not possess any of the pronounced candy and bubble-gum scents that characterize many modern rosés, while some, especially the garnacha-based wines from Navarra, even exhibit a sense of terroir, or terruño. On the palate, they are spiked with juicy acidity, are deliciously fruity (but not usually sweet), and display long, lingering, dry finishes that are sometimes laced with mineral tones, a result of the rocky soils on which they are grown. (Although it is the cheaper rosados from La Mancha, Navarra and Cataluña that typically exude candy and bubble-gum aromas, very few of these wines are really sweet in the finish and they, too, generally drink well with food.)
The vast majority of Spanish rosados are made only from yema (free-run) must or from musts obtained by a light first pressing. The best are made by the sangrado method, which literally means that a must has been "bled" from the grapes, a traditional term for the process that yields free-run juice. The grapes are first destemmed and lightly crushed, then left from a few hours or up to a day in contact with the skins, before the must is "bled" off into a separate stainless steel tank where it is left for a day to allow solids to settle to the bottom. Then the must is racked off as clean juice to another tank and fermented without the skins (fermentado en virgen) under temperature-controlled conditions.
The process results in very clean, fresh wines with plenty of bright acids, delicious fruit and enough tannins to keep the wines lively for a year or more (a few of Spain's top rosados are actually even better with a year of bottle age). Except for that relatively brief contact with the skins in order to pick up color, rosados are generally made in much the same way as a good white wine. In some instances, both red and white grapes are used to make some excellent rosados, which in La Rioja, are known as claros. Typical of this claro style of rosado are Muga's, R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia's Rosado de Crianza, and wines such as the lovely Perica Mi Villa and David Moreno and other ojo de gallo or "cock's eye" (what we English speakers call "eye of the partridge") from southeastern Rioja.
The lion's share of critically acclaimed rosados are the predominantly garnacha-based wines from Navarra and the garnacha-tempranillo and/or garnacha-viura blends from La Rioja.
Navarra's rosados often drink as well in the second year as they do in the first. Among the 100 percent garnacha versions, look for the Julián Chivite Gran Feudo, Señorio de Sarria Viñedo #5, Las Campanas and Malon de Echaide. (Las Campanas also makes the superlative, top-of-the-line Castillo de Javier, but, as of this writing, it was not available in the United States.) Less typical is Ochoa's Rosado Lágrima (50 percent garnacha/50 percent cabernet sauvignon) and Castillo de Monjardín's Merlot Rosado, an interesting wine made from Monjardín's estate La Rellanado Vineyard, fermented in Allier oak and left in barrel on the lees for four months before bottling.
In La Rioja, first-rate rosados are made by CUNE (100 percent garnacha), Marqués de Cáceres (80 percent tempranillo/20 percent garnacha), El Coto (tempranillo/garnacha) Martínez Bujanda Valdemar (100 percent garnacha) and Don Jacobo (tempranillo/ garnacha). But Muga's superb rosado (60 percent garnacha/30 percent viura/10 percent tempranillo) is perhaps the best of the bunch.
Also noteworthy is the remarkable, if quite controversial, R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rosado de Crianza. This exotic blend of tempranillo, garnacha and viura is aged for two years in oak and released after ten; the current vintage, of which only 700 cases were made, is 1993! Its distinctive pedigree makes it genuinely unique, and the wine is considered something of an acquired taste - more like an old white Burgundy than a conventional Spanish rosado. Its deep onion-skin color, which the López de Heredia family calls claro encendido (or illuminated gold), shows only the faintest traces of rose. It is a reductive rosado that benefits greatly from aeration (I use two glasses and pour the wine back and forth several times), which refreshes it and transforms it into an ethereal, very complex wine with myriad spicy flavors. (The 1988 vintage, my last bottle of which I finished only a few months ago, was exceptional.)
Few, if any, of the wonderful, ojo de gallo rosados from the southeastern Rioja (especially from the villages of San Asensio, Cordovin and Badaran), reach American shores. Reminiscent of the lovely blush of a classic rosé Champagne, such as Billecart-Salmon, these sublime rosados are typically a pale, salmon-rust color. For those lucky enough to encounter one of these inexpensive jewels, those that shine the brightest are Bodegas Perica's Mi Villa, David Moreno, Florentino Martinez and Señorio de Villarica.
Beyond the boundaries of Navarra and La Rioja, other delightful rosados are produced in Cataluña from garnacha, cariñena and foreign varieties (specifically in Penedés and Empordá-Costa Brava); in La Mancha, from cencibel (a.k.a. Manchegan tempranillo); in Valencia, Utiel-Requena and Manchuela bobal are favored; and in Alicante, Yecla and Jumilla monastrell (mourvèdre) are used; in Castilla-León, several bodegas in the Ribera del Duero produce tinto fino-based (tempranillo) rosados.
In Cataluña, a few bodegas, such as Torres (De Casta), René Barbier, Jané Ventura and Vallformosa, rely on the native garnacha, cariñena and tempranillo for their rosados, but many others, especially in the main region of Penedès, are now using non-Spanish grape varieties, including merlot, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and even shiraz. Some of the resulting rosados are quite good, among them Mas Comtal (100 percent merlot), Albet y Noya (60 percent pinot noir, 40 percent merlot), and Augustus (100 percent cabernet sauvignon). In the sparkling category, Codorníu, Gramona, Juve y Camps and Castillo Perelada produce superb rosado cavas from pinot noir.
Mariano Fuster, Juve y Camps export director, says that their Cinta Purpura (purple ribbon) 100 percent pinot noir brut cava is a single-vineyard wine that comes from the 13-acre Las Oliveras parcel on the winery's main property, Propietat d'Espiells. Though no vintage is listed on the label, it is actually 1999. Some 3,000 cases of this wine are made, and, according to Fuster, will be labeled Gran Reserva under new cava laws that go into effect in June. (This change will allow método tradicional wines that have been aged on the lees for 30 months to carry the Gran Reserva designation.)
Cigales, located near Valladolid in proximity to the better-known Castilla-León wine areas of Ribera del Duero, Toro and Rueda, has traditionally produced highly reputed tinto fino-based and white-grape rosado blends, but in my experience, the wines seldom live up to the fame accorded them. Two of its most impressive efforts, however, are the Calderona Rosado Elite (70 percent tempranillo/20 percent albillo/10 percent viura) and the Docetañidos (80 percent tempranillo/10 percent albillo/5 percent verdejo/5 percent sauvignon blanc).
Ribera del Duero is home to a few good, fresh, full-flavored tempranillo- and albillo-based rosados such as Viña Sastre and Valduero.
In the Levante region, which includes areas of Valencia, Alicante and Murcía, Bodegas Bleda's Castillo Jumilla 100-percent monastrell rosado and Casa de la Ermita's 100-percent syrah rosado are worth seeking out from Jumilla, as is the Bodegas Castaño monastrell rosado from Yecla.
Much like John Mariani, I have an unabashed and long-standing affection for Spanish rosados. I love to drink these bracing wines with seafood along the Mediterranean coast, the excellent Navarra rosados at almost every meal during the eight-day Fiestas de San Fermín in Pamplona each July, and the ethereal ojo de gallo wines of southern Rioja with the great country food of that region.
Admittedly, any wine always tastes better at the source, paired with its native cuisine, but I don't limit my rosado consumption to summer. We drink chilled white wines in winter, so why not rosados? In February, during lunch at Café de Oriente, one of Madrid's highly rated restaurants, I enjoyed a superb Señorío de Sarría 2001 Rosado, which complemented both the creative, upscale tapas and the main course, a sauté of scallops, monkfish and langoustines.
At home in New York, I often drink a Spanish rosado with Chinese food at Chin Chin, one of my favorite local restaurants. I find that a rosado's refreshing but full-flavored characteristics flatter Asian spices and bold ingredients such as ginger and scallion. Owner Jimmy Chin has had at least one rosado on his wine list since he opened nearly 15 years ago.
On Valentine's Day, I took four rosados, including a cava, to Terrance Brennan's celebrated Artisanal. The wines were not only the perfect romantic choice, they were fine companions to a meal that included boudin blanc with mustard vinaigrette, monkfish with Savoy cabbage, roasted rabbit with spaetzle and a Piave cheese fondue with pine nuts and raisins.
In fact, dry yet fruity rosados, not usually high in alcohol (about 12 to13 percent) and mercifully free of oak (with only two notable exceptions), are among the most food-friendly wines one is likely to encounter.
Mark Miller, chef-owner of Santa Fe's Coyote Café and director of Wildfire, one of the hottest restaurants in Sydney, Australia, believes Spanish rosados are among the best rosé wines in the world. "Good rosados frame and flatter the natural flavors of a dish - they don't drown food out," Miller says. "They also have appealing colors, beautiful aromas, are light enough to be drunk without worrying about the alcohol content and tasty enough to be satisfying.
"From a chef's point of view," he continues, "rosados are perfect for the more subtle and aromatic flavors of either Mediterranean or Asian dishes, which get overwhelmed by big, tannic wines or wines that have too much wood." Miller favors those rosados made from garnacha. Besides their natural affinity for food, he underscores the idea that rosados are very romantic: "And in today's world, we need all the romance we can get!"
While this is true, it doesn't take a hopeless romantic to figure out that Spanish rosados - charming, inexpensive and plentiful - can provide pleasurable drinking for the open-minded aficionado who is willing to view the table through rosado-colored glasses.
Rosado Tasting Bar
Many of these exceptional "chillable wines with character" are astounding values, inexpensive enough to purchase by the case and enjoy throughout the year. The 200l rosados are still drinking quite well and the 2002s are now arriving. Although the latter vintage is not good for red wines, the 2002 rosados are reasonably good and will be even better after a couple of months in bottle. (The 2002s tasted for this article had just been bottled and needed time to settle down.)
Sometimes in off years, when wines are normally more acidic, rosados can be even better than in the good red wine vintages, when the grapes (especially garnacha) may get very ripe, but lack the natural acidity to balance the wine. (For example, CUNE's 1997 rosado, from a poor red wine harvest, was delicious.)
All the rosados mentioned below are "Recommended"; the rosado cavas are made by the método tradicional.
Castillo Perelada, Galatea Torre Rosado Brut - $25: Strawberry-cherry pink; fine bead. Fresh, yeasty, cherry pie nose. Light, charming, delicious flavors of cherry pie and strawberry; very well-made. (Dalí design on the bottle; 12 months on the lees.) (garnacha, monastrell; 11.5% alcohol) Score: 89
Codorníu, Pinot Noir Brut - $11: Salmon-strawberry pink; long, fine bead. Pretty, fruity, yeasty, strawberry and raspberry nose. Rich, deep strawberry, raspberry and yeasty flavors with a properly balanced mousse and a long, dry finish. (100% pinot noir; 12% alcohol) Score: 88
Freixenet, Brut de Noirs - $9: Peachy, salmon with onion skin hues. Fresh, fruity, yeasty, strawberry and vanilla nose. Red cherry, strawberry and vanilla flavors that have an uncanny resemblance to cream soda. A little sweet on the mid-palate, but has a nice dry finish. (50% garnacha/50% monastrell; aged on the lees 18 months; 11.5% alcohol) Score: 86
Juve y Camps, Cinta Purpúra Rosado Brut - $10: Very intense cranberry red (the darkest sparkling wine I know of - almost red); fine, active mousse. Yeasty, cranberry-raspberry, vanilla nose. Well-made, elegant, balanced and creamy, but full of assertive cranberry, raspberry and red currant flavors with a lively, clean finish. Exceptional value. (100% pinot noir; 12% alcohol) Score: 90
Bodegas San Martín, 2002 Zarramendi Rosado, Navarra - $6: From the San Martín de Unx Cooperative near Olite (Navarra), an area known for its exceptional old vines garnacha (called garnacho tinto in Navarra). Sample drawn from a tank, bottled and air-freighted to the U.S. without filtration. Pinkish-red, cloudy. Fermentation smells, red cherry fruit. Gutsy, spritzy, delicious cherry fruit and a long, dry, mineral finish. Very good even in this pre-bottling state. A great value. (100% garnacha; 13% alcohol) (tank samples) Score: 88
Castillo Perelada, 2001 Rosado, Empordà-Costa Brava - $9: Bright, cherry-strawberry. Very nice cherry-strawberry nose. Fresh, juicy, modern wine with straightforward cherry-strawberry flavors and a dry finish. Well-made, delicious food wine. (65% garnacha/25% tempranillo/10% cariñena; 12.5% alcohol) Score: 86
Cooperativa La Invencible, 2002 Viña Lastra Rosado, Cencibel Valdepeñas - $6: Deep cherry red. Fruity, but still tight, rustic nose. Gutsy, ripe, rich strawberry-cherry flavors with a dry, mineral finish. Delicious and enjoyable, if somewhat rugged. Good value. (100% cencibel; 13% alcohol) (tank sample) Score: 86
CUNE, 2001 Rosado, La Rioja - $9: Rusty, cherry red. Fresh, pretty scents of red cherry, clove and cinnamon. Smooth entry of fresh cherry-strawberry fruit; finishes dry and gutsy with a clean mineral flourish. Delicious, well-balanced and fruity. Exceptional value. (100% garnacha; 13.5% alcohol) Score: 89
El Coto, 2001 Rosado, La Rioja - $9: Pale, rusty, salmon. Fresh nose of cherry-strawberry. Lively, delicious flavors of cherry and strawberry fruit, spicy cinnamon and lemon; nice mouth-feel with a clean, dry, mineral-laced finish. A serious, full-flavored yet lovely wine and a fine example of a classically styled Rioja rosado. (50% garnacha, 50% tempranillo; 12.5% alcohol) Score: 89
Faustino V, 2002 Rosado, La Rioja - $10: Pretty strawberry red. Clean, pronounced scents of spicy clove, cinnamon and strawberry. Full-bodied, glossy, fat wine with strawberry fruit and very spicy cinnamon and clove finish. (100% tempranillo; 13% alcohol; macerated 18 hours) Score: 87
Fruto Villar, 2000 Calderona Elite Rosado, Cigales - $9: Medium rosy strawberry thick legs suggesting more than 12% alcohol. Almost a white wine nose: minerals, no candy aromas. Rich, fat, dry and spicy with a great mouth-feel and long, penetrating mineral finish. A little less lively after two years, but still very good. (70% tinto fino, 20% albillo, 10% viura; 12% alcohol) Score: 87
Julián Chivite, 2001 Rosado, Navarra - $8: Deep cherry. Pretty, fresh, cherry-berry nose, no candy smells. Fruity, easy-drinking, balanced, dry, elegant, mineral flavors. Shows complex ripe cherry-cinnamon-clove flavors with food. Still drinking exceptionally well. Incredible value! (100% garnacha; 12.5% alcohol) Score: 90
Julián Chivite, 2002 Rosado, Navarra - $8: Deep cherry red. Pretty cherry-strawberry nose. Gutsier and spicier than the 2001. Nice cherry, strawberry, clove and cinnamon flavors. Ripe, full-flavored and very dry with a long, spicy, penetrating finish. Again, an exceptional value. (100% garnacha; 12.5% alcohol; recently bottled, sample air-couriered) Score: 89
Las Campanas, Rosado 2001, Navarra - $8: Pretty deep strawberry. Clean, fresh red cherry nose. Deliciously fruity, excellent balance and a long, dry, mineral finish. A superb food wine. (100% garnacha) Score: 89
Marqués de Cáceres, 2001 Rosado, La Rioja - $7: Bright strawberry. Fresh, strawberry nose without candy and bubble gum aromas. Lively, deceptively light on entry, but full of spicy cinnamon and strawberry flavors; long, lovely, dry finish. Fabulous value! Everything white Zin is not. (80% tempranillo/20% garnacha; 13% alcohol) Score: 88
Martínez Bujanda Valdemar, 2002 Rosado, La Rioja - $9: Rose red, cherry. Cherry pie nose, not jammy or candy sweet; fresh and clean. Rich, spicy (cinnamon and clove), cherry, cranberry and strawberry flavors with a lively, dry finish. (100% garnacha; 12.5% alcohol) Score: 88
Muga, 2001 Rosado, La Rioja - $12: Pale salmon, rusty. Fresh, fruity cherry-strawberry nose with traces of minerals. Clove, cinnamon and delicious, faint cherry fruit with juicy acids and a long, dry, clean mineral finish. Superb with food. (60% garnacha/ 30% viura/10% tempranillo: a field blend grown in the cooler valleys of southern Rioja; 13% alcohol) Score: 91
Ochoa, 2002 Rosado, Navarra - $6: Deep cranberry red. Spicy clove, cinnamon, cherry pie and berry nose. Lively, gutsy (probably more alcohol than the label indicates), slightly sweet cherry, cranberry and strawberry fruit with a rusty, mineral finish. Good value. (100% garnacha; 12.5% alcohol) Score: 86
R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, 1993 Rosado de Crianza, La Rioja - $20: Gold-tinged onion-skin color with hints of rose at the core. Scents of lemon, clove, cinnamon, tobacco, mineral. Very dry and austere. With aeration delivers complex flavors of toffee, apricot, cinnamon, cloves and tobacco on a long, clean, lemony finish. Needs food. (tempranillo/garnacha/viura: aged for two years in American oak and released after ten years; aerate to bring out the full flavors; 12% alcohol) Score: 92
Señorío de Sarría Viñedo #5, 2001 Vendimia Seleccionada Rosado, Navarra - $10: Deep cranberry. Scents of cinnamon, clove, cherry and mineral. Lots of rich, but not overblown flavors of cherry, strawberry and cranberry. A superb rosado with a dry, rusty garnacha-mineral finish. Delicious with food. (100% garnacha; 13% alcohol) Score: 92
- Gerry Dawes
Contributing Editor Gerry Dawes has been traveling to Spain for more than 30 years.
