THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506010080
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE HUMBLE STEWARD
SOURCE: JIM RAPER
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
PINK WINES COME in all sorts of flavors and with a confusing array of names, such as white zinfandel, white grenache, blush, vin gris and rose.
Some are sweet. Some are semisweet. Some are dry.
A few have intense fruit flavor, often like that of strawberries. But most have only traces of distinguishable fruit and are more for quaffing than for sipping.
No matter the style, however, pink wines do have one thing in common: They are great picnic wines.
Whether the wine of choice is a sweetish white zinfandel from California or a dry rose from the Rhone River region of France, it is likely to mate well with the picnicker's sandwiches, cold meats, light cheeses and salads.
Pink wines also are at their best when they are chilled, which makes them appropriate - like no room-temperature red can be - for outdoor dining in warm weather.
Traditional pink wines are made from dark grapes but are not allowed the lengthy skin contact that give red wines their color. They are vinified like white wines to emphasize lively fruit flavors. Some of the less expensive pink wines, on the other hand, simply are blends of white and red wines.
The best-selling pink wines in the U.S. are the semi-sweet white zinfandels, white grenaches and blushes.
Most buyers of these wines, I suppose, simply like a dose of residual sugar in their glasses and aren't choosy about which foods to pair with them. But there are some foods, such as salty Smithfield ham and dishes made with curries and chilis, that go particularly well with white zinfandels.
As a rule of thumb, if a label has the word ``white'' followed by the name of a red grape such as zinfandel, the wine in the bottle will have noticeable residual sugar. And if the label describes the wine as a ``blush,'' you can also count on it being at least a little bit sweet.
The white zinfandel that has most impressed me over the years is the one made by Beringer Vineyards. With a price of about $7, it is more expensive than most of its competition, but its generous fruit flavor and longer finish makes it worth the extra cost.
Some Virginia wineries make flavorful semi-sweet pink wines they label as blushes and sell for about $5. Three to try are the Barboursville 1993 Cabernet Blanc Blush, Lake Anna (nonvintage) Lakeside Sunset Blush and the Oakencroft (nonvintage) Blush Off-Dry.
If a wine has the word ``rose'' on the label, it is likely to be dry.
One of the better known of France's roses, the Rose d'Anjou from the Loire Valley, is semi-sweet. It is made from several grape varieties, including gamay, malbec and groslot. Other roses from the Loire are made with some cabernet franc in the blend and usually are dry.
The Tavel roses of Frances Rhone region are also well known. They are dry and made mostly from grenache. These wines have a distinctive pink-orange color, and the better examples have impressive body.
Unfortunately, roses from Anjou and Tavel tend to often cost well over $10, which is more than most people want to pay for a picnic wine. Less well known roses from the Rhone region and the Mediterranean coast of France can be found for about $6.
Often forgotten in the rose hunt are the examples from Spain, especially from the Navarre (Navarra in Spanish) region, which is adjacent to the Rioja in the northern part of the country.
I recently had the good fortune to taste the Chivite 1994 Gran Feudo Rose Navarra, which is deep pink and intensely fruity, although dry. I cannot remember tasting a better rose. Even at $10, this wine would be reasonably priced, but its importer, CIV (USA) Inc. of Sacramento, recommends that it be sold by retailers for $6.
The Gran Feudo is made from grenache (garnacha in Spanish) grapes and only from the choicest free-run juice.
Although there are quite a few $6 roses from France and Spain, not many are outstanding. The worse of the cheap imported roses I've tasted were not vintage dated and were too old to enjoy. Ask your wine merchant to recommend a fruity and fresh rose.
When in doubt about an imported rose, you might look for a California example such as the Joseph Phelps 1993 Vin du Mistral Grenache Rose ($10).
Finally, if a pink wine is labeled as ``vin gris,'' it usually will be dry.
Vin gris is a French term for pale rose, usually those made from the pinot noir grape in Burgundy or Alsace. But a few California wineries have appropriated the term and are making some excellent wines labeled as such.
Two examples are the Vin Gris de Cigare from Bonny Doon (about $9), which is a blend mostly of grenache and mourvedre, and the Cline Vin Gris Mourvedre ($12). MEMO: The Humble Steward is a biweekly feature of Sunday Flavor. Send
questions or comments to: The Humble Steward, Sunday Flavor, The
Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk,
Va. 23510. If possible, give complete label information when naming
wines, and list the vintage year. Please include your name and phone
number. by CNB