Drink Pink – Or Blush Or Gold Or Peach

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By Tori and Sasha Sickles |

Some summer trends never die – Ray Ban shades, Italian ice at Strollo’s Lighthouse, and the tropical sounds of Jimmy Buffet will live on forever. A new trend to add to this list is a glorious glass of rosé. This blush-colored wine has been popping up heavily on wine lists and Instagram feeds for a few years now.
More popular than ever, rosé is created when red grape skins are in contact with the juice for a short period of time, typically one to three days. The resulting colors range from shades of translucent pink to blush to rich golden hues. If you haven’t figured it out yet, for this article we were more than delighted to try a variety of rosé wines to recommend to the readers of The Two River Times for summer imbibing. As amateur wine tasters, we reached out to our knowledgeable friends at Rumson Wine & Spirits and they were kind enough to help us handpick bottles from their extensive rosé collection. With that, let’s begin and end with something pink!

Chateau L’Aumerage and The Pinot Project

THE PINOT PROJECT
ROSÉ 2016
A Project we’d like to manage
Tasting Notes: A big hit amongst our friends, this full- flavored Pinot Rosé is from Verona, Italy. Satisfying with notes of raspberries and rose petals. The color is dark pink and we loved the rich, luscious flavor that hit our tongues.

WÖLFFER NO. 139 DRY ROSÉ CIDER
Known for its “Bohemian Spirit”
Tasting Notes: This pale pink, crisp rosé cider is distributed in delicate little bottles and made in New York State. The flavor comes from Crispin apples grown locally in New York with a strong strawberry note that was detected immediately. We found this to be light, slightly dry, bubbly, and very, very tasty.
PIERRE-YVES COLIN-MOREY ROSÉ DE PINOT NOIR 2016
Called “Pink Dynamite”
Tasting Notes: This beauty is crafted from 100 percent pinot noir, aged in large 2-3 year old barrels and bottled (unfined and unfiltered) in Burgundy, France. We really appreciated the sweet, floral notes with hints of melon and red fruit. Devoted wine reviewers have described this as, “Electric Pink Liquid” and we definitely agree.

CHÂTEAU DE L’AUMERADE CÔTES DE PROVENCE
CRU CLASSÉ ROSÉ CUVÉE MARIE-CHRISTINE 2016
Oui, Oui Provence
Tasting Notes: A pink drink from Provence, this is what rosé should be. With the hue of a rose petal, this delicate wine has hints of grapefruit and white fruits complemented by a full and spicy palette and a smooth texture. It left us wanting more, more, more!
LIQUID FARM ROSÉ MOURVÉDRE HAPPY CANYON OF SANTA BARBARA AVA 2016
Summer in a glass
Tasting Notes: Did you ever hear of a better wine name than Liquid Farm? We didn’t think so. An old world style rosé made in Santa Barbara, California. Rich and fruity, with notes of pomegranates and citrus with a lot of minerality. Aged 6 months in a neutral barrel.
DOMAINES OTT CHÂTEAU DE SELLE CÔTES DE PROVENCE 2015
A classic!
Tasting Notes: This exquisite wine is more peach in color than pink. You can see the thick glycerin legs running down the sides of the glass in gold highlights that show its fruit. While this wine is light in color, the flavor envelopes your tastes buds with grapefruit and strawberry.
Domaines Ott

DOMAINES OTT BY OTT ROSÉ 2016
Newer & distinct from the Ott Family
Tasting Notes: The palest rosé we’ve sampled so far is peach in color, very smooth with a floral-citrus base. This wine tasted better with each sip and is something we could easily drink alongside lunch, dinner and with dessert – preferably on a beach in southern France.

CHÂTEAU LÉOUBE LE SECRET DE LÉOUBE ROSÉ 2015
Close your eyes and take a sip
Tasting Notes: If you close your eyes, you’ll think you’re standing in the vineyards of Provence. Subtle, elegant and utterly perfect. With touches of honey, nectarines, and a very earthy aroma, we knew this was a special wine and were happy to be drinking it with good friends around the table.
MASTROBERARDINO LACRIMAROSA ROSATO CAMPANIA 2016
This one dances on the tongue
Tasting Notes: A hefty sip of this wine exhumes an audible “Ahhh.” This rosé starts out slow then dances with your taste buds and covers them completely with a perfect balance of fruit and floral. The grape in this is aglianico, a grape variety from southern Italy that grows in hot climates and gives certain wines like this rosé a musky berry flavor. This was a definitive favorite in all of our rosé tasting.
Throughout the past few weeks, we tasted at least 20 rosés and these were our final picks.
A shout out to our friends and parents who helped us taste all the rosé! A tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And remember to drink what you like. There is no right or wrong when it comes to rosé, it’s all about living in the moment and celebrating your own tastes.
Send us your favorite rosés at tastes@tworivertimes.com.
Happy Eating & Drinking Always,
Tori and Sasha
Tori and Sasha Sickles, members of the Sickles Market family, write about food, culinary trends and casual eateries in their monthly column “Two River Tastes.” You can reach them at tastes@tworivertimes.com or follow their food journeys on Instagram @torikaylan and @sasha_ad. 

This story originally appeared in the Summer Kickoff section of the  May 25-June 1 print edition of The Two River Times