However, the summer my family lived in southern France, we discovered dry rosés--the Mediterranean summer wine of choice. We bought it like gasoline at a local winery, hosing it into plastic containers, from which we filled old wine bottles and refrigerated them. Every summer since, I've bought these young wines and enjoyed them into the fall.
Rosé is like a white wine made with red wine grapes, says Bob Feinn of Mount Carmel Wine and Spirits in Hamden, Connecticut. Once crushed, the skins are left with the juice just long enough for it to pick up a little flavor and tint, from blushing pink to light red. So it's not surprising that a good chilled rosé offers the refreshing quality of white wine, with a little character of red. Unlike white zinfandel, rosé is dry, so it partners beautifully with food, especially Mediterranean.
Good rosés can be found around $10 a bottle. Look for wines from France, Italy, Spain and Greece. Or try some American bottles: Bonny Doon's Ca'del Solo Big House Pink and Snoqualmie's Cirque Du Rosé are two. And because rosé is best consumed young (one to two years from release), pick wines dated accordingly.
Copyright 2005 USA Weekend and columnist Pam Anderson. All rights reserved.
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