It's Above 80 Degrees! Time For The First Rosé of the Season

This year, up here in the northeast, it took a while for the temperature to rise above eighty degrees . We had a high of eighty-three degrees on May 25th and, while I had tasted a few samples for work,  I used this opportunity to open the first rosé of the season in my own kitchen. To be honest, we did have a freaky hot day on April 7th when it hit ninety, but I was unprepared for that event, so it doesn't count.

I usually prepare for this yearly celebration, "The Official Start of Rosé Season", by leaving one bottle of rosé, from the previous year, untouched. This takes forethought and a bit of will power, but sometimes it simply comes down to a looming winter with its northeasterly frigid winds extinguishing the desire for pink juice and thereby leaving a cellar orphan in my closet. This year, however, I was out of luck, unprepared, and without a rosé from last year's vintage. Yet providence shined on this year's ribbon cutting, ceremonial, pop of the cork; I experienced, what I will call, a happy accident.


Sometime in April, the wine/liquor store I work at part-time had started to put this year's selection of rosés out onto their metal racks, and I noticed what I thought was a 2009 Couly-Dutheil, Chinon, Rosé. I picked one up, brought it home and lined it up with the growing horde of wines I have been meaning to try. When, weeks later, May 25th came around with its forecast of temperatures reaching pink wine levels, I reached for the 09 Couly-Dutheil first thing in the morning, and shoved it in the fridge. Later in the day, when I got home from a sticky, humid day of gardening, I pulled the bottle from the fridge, set it on the counter where it immediately started to form beads of sweat. I uncorked it without much thought, poured a glass and started to sip while I assembled dinner, which was to be yogurt, lime, and garlic marinated chicken breasts grilled on the Weber. I even tweeted that I had just opened the bottle. I was still a bit perturbed that I wasn't drinking an 08, but I should have paid attention to the little le Mondial du Rosé silver seal, given by The Union des OEnologues de France, on the front of the bottle, which I ignored when I bought the bottle. The year on the sticker, quite plainly, was 2009, which meant that there was no way this rosé could have been from that vintage. I didn't notice this obvious discrepancy until I was half-way through the bottle. I turned the bottle around and found the vintage: 2008! All was well; the wine gods looked down on me with favor or pity; the first rose of 2010 was, indeed, from the 2008 vintage!

2008 Couly-Dutheil, Rene Couly, Chinon, Rosé - Clear, watermelon pink with an orange tone. Nose had strawberry, watermelon and papaya fruit aromas, as well as green bell pepper and a hint of burnt sugar. The palate was very bright, tart acidity balanced by a little bit of sweetness up front, but finished long and dry. The fruitiness as well as the bell pepper flavor carried over nicely from the aromas. Good concentration of flavors. 100% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol as stated on the label: 12.5%. $19.99. Very Good.

So far this spring I've tasted a little over a dozen rosés from the 2009 vintage. I highly recommend the following if you prefer, as I do, a very crisp and dry style:

Commanderie de la Bargemone, Coteaux d'Aix en Provence. $15ish

Domaine Houchart, Provence. $10ish

J M Raffault, Chinon. $17ish

A quick take on dinner and the marinade. I served this wine with grilled marinated chicken breasts, fiddle-heads and Israeli couscous with cranberries and pecans (purchased at Whole Foods). The wine went seamlessly with every aspect of the dish. The woodsy demeanor of the fiddle-heads sidled up nicely to the bell pepper in the wine, the cranberries mirrored the wine's tartness, and the fruit and zip of the wine brought out the spices and natural flavors of the chicken. The marinade is very simple, and doesn't have to be exact, but I am always amazed at the delicious results. Cheers!

cup of yogurt

juice of one small lime

T. freshly grated ginger

2 cloves of garlic

t. coriander

t. cumin

t. salt