Friday, September 01, 2006

Aged Rosé and the Winner Was......

Greek….....huh? In fact, my favorite rosé of the summer was curiously my preferred pink from last summer; same wine, same millisème, except one year later (the saq did not order the wine for this summer).

I am a firm believer in the short term cellaring of wines… all wines. I have found that even the most banal of bottlings benefits from as little as 6 months in a cool, stable environment. The rule is never drink from the store, aim to stock the basement and use that as your inspiration for the evenings dinner. Aside from the pleasure of slowly watching your collection grow and seeing what styles of wines you need, your wines will simply taste better.

Agioritikos Rosé 2003, Tsantalis ($16…saq)
From the slopes of Mount Athos, this mix of Limnio, Roditis and Xinomavro is packed full of wild strawberries and raspberry. While last summer it’s bright acidity made it a perfect aperitif, a year later it drinks more like a soft red. It is still the same wine, though the ensemble seems more integrated, with less acidity giving way to a richer, more opulent texture. We drank what was left in the province (13 bottles) mostly with salmon, mostly in the sunshine, and always around half way through the bottle we would take a moment to give the wine a good swirl, take a sniff and a sip and remark, ‘c’est pas mal bon cette petit rosé.’

What more needs to be said about a wine.