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Top 10 Rosé Wines For Summer Every June, I get on my soapbox about rosé wines and how Americans don't give them a chance because their only experience with rosé wine has been White Zinfandel. I can understand the reluctance to experiment with wines that look like White Zinfandel, but once you discover the wonderful flavor and refreshing qualities of this hidden jewel, your life will forever be changed. A few years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Real Men (and Women) Drink Pink." Since then, rosé wines have started to take their rightful place as a great summertime wine. There are now sold out events that not only serve rosé, but where it is the main attraction. In addition, more and more wineries are experimenting with rosé wines, and selling out of their rosé in a short period of time. Rosés do not have to be sweet, and traditionally are not. They can be completely bone dry and as refreshing as any Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, or Chardonnay that you drink during the summer. A society of international winemakers and wine drinkers called the Rosé Avengers and Producers,(www.rapwine.com), RAP for short, is dedicated to educating consumers about the virtues of dry rosé. Remember that White Zinfandel is the exception, not the rule. Rosés get their pink hue from the limited contact time with the skins of the grapes. This contact usually lasts a few hours. When you crush almost any grape, regardless of skin color, the juice runs pretty much clear. By leaving the juice of a red grape in contact with the skins for a short period of time, the juice picks up just enough color from the skins to give the wine a nice pink hue. As you increase the duration of contact between the juice and the skins, the resulting wine will become darker. You will find that rosés range from a pale pink to almost a light red hue. But, there is something else that contact with grape skins gives to wine, namely tannins. They can affect the texture or feel of the wine in the mouth, and also act as preservatives during the aging process. Since red wines have had considerable contact with the skins, anywhere from 2 weeks to over a month, the youthful tannins in a red wine can be a bit astringent. Reds generally require a certain amount of bottle-aging to fully mature and smooth out. But, because rosé wines have had little skin contact; they contain very low levels of tannins. This is why several die-hard red wine drinkers drink rosé wines during the summer. It is also why rosé wines can -- and should -- be consumed within a year after release. As they age, they quickly begin to lose the wonderful fruit flavors -- often strawberries, peaches, or cherries -- that characterize a good rosé. We reviewed over 100 different rosés from all over the world this year. Here is our top-ten list of must-haves: (click for full review)
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