by Patrick Ogle

Libertine Wines' Acid Freak rosé is made from riesling and dolcetto. If that sounds a little odd it is because it is a teensy weensy bit odd.

Out of the gate the wine has cranberry, then raspberry with a bit of vinegar. It is a little a little funky with great , bright acid, as you might expect from the name. I say "this tastes like summer" about a lot of roses and this one really tastes like that but it is a great deal more interesting than the ocean of Provence rosés flooding the market. 

A dolcetta riesling co-fermentation is unlikely. You can read more about how it came to be on Wilamette Valley-based Libertine's website.  The fact that this is an odd mix does not mean this wine is, in any way, off putting or weird.  It is not. I cannot imagine anyone not liking this who enjoys rose. There are a number of such co-fermentations, sometimes with much more peculiar combinations of grapes, out there. Sometimes they veer toward red, other times are more obviously rosé. Once upon a time it was considered a BAD thing to mix red and white grapes (even though it was often done traditionally). These days orthodoxy isn't king and we are seeing more creative blends.

Even though it isn't traditional this co-fermentation makes sense. You get bright fruit from dolcetto but not much in the way of acid. Of course riesling BRINGS the acid. Riesling is one of the white grapes with the highest acidity. There is a lot of fruit here. One drinker thought it was sweet but that is likely the fruit masquerading as sweetness. The acid might cover a little but there isn't more than a small amount of sugar even if it is there.

Riesling gets its due. People who know realize it is one of the premiere grapes for white wine. Dolcetto is often regarded as a poor stepchild of the more famous reds from Piedmont.  This is unfair. Not every wine needs to be something you save for 20 years, nor does every wine have to rip your head of with its tannins.  Maybe wines like this will get people interested in their more traditional counterparts.

by Patrick Ogle

Bodegas Los Bermejos Lanzarote Listan Negro Rosado 2016 is a rose from the Canary Islands with complexity and character.

My initial reaction was that there is something round about it in the mouth feel. But I have to admit? This was wrong. There is definitely more than enough acid to keep the wine from being flabby. That initial perception of "roundness" was probably detecting a certain unctuousness in the wine before the acidity became apparent. The wine has a bigger mouthfeel to me than some. It is different. There is something wild about this wine. I imagine an overgrown unkept secret vineyard next to an erupting volcano. This is just my imagination of course (although the soil is
certainly volcanic).
 
There are hints of light red berry and some bitterness as well. There are also tons of different floral and herbal notes to go with a red fruit tartiness that makes this a wine that you certainly can drink by itself on a warm afternoon but that will also work with a variety of foods--spicy and salty foods especially. Part of the minerality here is a bit salty. Don't serve this TOO cold so you can get at all of these.

I guarantee you will taste and sense other qualities than I do. This is a pretty complicated rose. I kept changing my mind about this wine, not about how good it was but about how it tasted, its characteristics.

Listan Negro is the red version of palomino (the grape not the horse). Palomino is used in the production of Sherry. Listan Negro is also the Mission grape of the New World. It is sometimes called pais, although I have read that the mission grape and pais are related but not necessarily the exact same thing. It isn't a common grape but it is common in the Canary Islands.

by Patrick Ogle

Domaine Zafeirakis limniona rose is a minerally Greek rose from a little grown grape which is also an ancient variety (you may also see it called limnio).

The color is somewhere between salmon and peach, that reddish part of the peach. There is something "stone-fruity" about this as well as a slightly bitter finish which separates it from many roses.  It is more minerally and has some "vegetal" tastes going on; these become more apparent as the wine warms.

When I first sipped this it was extremely cold). If you are looking for a Provence rose this isn't what you are looking for but if you are looking for something with a little more complexity, given it still costs about $12? You may like this one. It has more of a cranberry taste than the candy apple/strawberry you find in the Provence roses. But you can certainly sense some of that strawberry flavor in this wine.

Limniona is a varietal that was apparently grown widely in Greece before phylloxera wiped out grapes on the mainland (again no solid confirmation of this). Regardless, the grape's origins are in the Greek Islands, specifically the island of Lemnos. The grape may also be an ancient variety mentioned by various writers of antiquity. There is heft to these writings because there are multiple sources and all of them mention the same island. So, when you drink this wine you may well be drinking something akin to what Aristotle tasted. Back in those days red wines may well have been closer to roses.

by Patrick Ogle

Marestagno comes from the home island of Napoleon, Corsica and is made of a little-known grape, Sciaccarellu. It also has a price tag of about $9. Because this is a strange grape you might thing that means it is a strange wine--but the funny thing is about "strange" grapes; the wines they produce are not, by definition, outside the "normal" smells and tastes you find in "normal" wines. Sometimes they are but not always.
 
This wine, on first sniff, seems to have some herbal qualities. These are less apparent in the taste but they are lurking there. The fruit reminds of many warm-weather French roses. It has a red-fruit strawberry/rasberry taste but with a crisp acidity. There is nothing odd or objectionable in Marestagno. In fact, it calls to mind a slightly less fruity Provence wine but it might be a bit more food friendly. It has something of a bitter, brambly finish but this only becomes really apparent as it warms quite a bit (what can I say, I was drinking on a hot day). There is a little bit of pepperiness here too.

By several accounts Sciaccarellu is a tough skinned grape that can be difficult to grow. Mildew attacks it. It is particular about the soils it will grow in. It appears to be Italian in origin (but I couldn't find conclusive evidence from anywhere I consider 100 percent reliable). It is usually a blending grape for red wines. If it is grown outside of Corsica I couldn't find where.

Corsica has a large number of "surprising" grapes that are well worth a look and a taste. The grapes are often only found on the island, even when there origin may be elsewhere. Some are among the rarest grapes grown commercially anywhere. More on these soon.

by Patrick Ogle

Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of pinot noir was a wine I discovered accidentally. An old boss decided to open a bottle so everyone could try it. As soon as I took a sip I said "@#$% you!" because I knew I was buying a bottle.

This light, elegant rose pinot noir has something just short of effervescence, a crispness from dissolved CO2. It definitely calls to mind strawberries and finishes with a hint  of acidity. It is a nice rose for a hot day--a commonly statement about light crisp roses. Remember that when someone says something has a fruit flavor they are not necessarily referring to sweetness but other parts of the fruit's flavor. This wine is dry as a bone.

I don't always think of what food to have with a wine but here I couldn't help thinking of having this with some light fair--cheese (nothing to stinky) and dried fruits. I wouldn't want to fruit to be too sweet or too acidic. This is a wine to serve cold. 

"Is this sweet?" is a common question aimed at a bottle of rose. Perhaps this is because the wine is pink and pretty and just SEEMS like it should be sweet.  Perhaps they are recalling days of yore when white zinfandel ruled the grocery store shelves. Sweet roses, however, seem to have gone out of fashion these days; they are rare birds.

This is a Carneros pinot noir and if you can find a bad wine from there I will eat my hat.

$24-28

by Patrick Ogle

Broc Cellars Love Rosé 2014 will truly make you love rose (if you don't already). The first thing I thought about this wine was how pleasant it is to sip on a hot day. A little later I thought; "This wine is the reason I love wine." It is more than just smell and taste. A wine like this makes you think and thinking is part of enjoying wine. It isn't just about getting boozed up.

I thought "strawberry" first then rejected that notion. Next I thought "cherry". But even here I am not quite sure (I confess I had something of a cold). There are things you might find contradictory--a round softness that shares space with some crispness. The first sensation of "sweetness" (it isn't really sweet) is the fruit. It makes you think of sweetness-- in this case a scary mythical red fruit like cherry candy (with no sugar).

See how confused this wine made me? I am making up fake fruit.

How does a rosé have this much going on? Maybe it is the unusual grape choices--white grenache gris, zinfandel and barbera. This combination is part of what makes you think; is that taste from the barbera? Sure the grenache is predominant but a little zin goes a long way! Keep in mind grenache gris is not grenache blanc but a mutation of the red grenache grape. Barbera is, of course, one of the most planted red varietals in Italy and it is planted with some frequency and success in California.

This is what I love about wine. I am still trying to figure out this rosé. I may go through two or three bottles before I come to any solid conclusion and I will have fun doing it. This kind of depth in a rosé, to me, is what makes a good or great wine--keeping in mind the context; this is an under $20 bottle of wine.

Broc Cellars wines are  excellent, unusual and moderately priced. I have yet to taste a bad one. The make numerous fun, unusual blends but they also make varietals of note. They recently released a rosé zinfandel that was a tribute to the white zinfandel of days gone by (even though it didn't taste like it at all). White zinfandel has been credited with saving the zinfandel vines of California. Red zins were not popular back in those days and the vines might well have been replaced with more lucrative plantings had white zinfandel not taken off.

These folks think about their wines and it shows. Broc Cellars wines are always, ALWAYS, fun. This rosé is trendy, elegant and unique. If you see it grab a bottle.

$17-20

by Patrick Ogle

Kir-Yianni Akakies rosé is a Greek wine made from 100 percent xinomavro. This wine is a sharp, crisp and not super fruity rosé with red fruit hints and floral flavors. Floral here means refers not to chewing on greenery but inhaling the fragrance of a subtle field of flowers.  When you take a sip and exhale these floral flavors appear. They don’t exactly “appear” they are there in every sip but they are perhaps more obvious at the finish.

This wine has a dark color for a rosé and more body and more too it. The sharpness, the tartness and acidity balance with the floral and the fruit.  This is a wine you can serve cold but as it warms you will notice more complexity and flavor. This is true of most wines that HAVE complexity—as the temperature goes up you will taste more.

Some people still think of rosés as sweet.  Maybe it is remembering the bad old white zinfandel of days past. Maybe it is the pink color. These days most roses you find are, at least, fairly dry. Roses may be blends or may, like this one, be 100 percent from a single grape. You see cabernet franc used in Chinon rosés and other grapes you associate with medium to even heavy red wines.

The grape’s name translates literally to “acid black.”  Yet the wine made from this grape is often described as similar to pinot noir. There is nothing extremely acidic about this wine even though there is enough acid to make things interesting.

Reading on this grape you read some fairly contradictory things; the wines are highly tannic or the wines are similar to a pinot. Which is true?  This is something that will have to be explored more fully—finding some red xinomavros seems to be in order.

$16-20

by Patrick Ogle

Umathum’s 2013 rosé is a refreshing wine for a hot day. Nothing beats a rosé on a summer-like day but this wine? You don’t need the heat to enjoy it. Feel free to break this out in fall, winter or spring.

I wasn't in the mood to have a glass of wine at all but what better way to find out precisely how good a wine is than to have it when you do not want it? This Austrian wine has a tiny bit of effervescence, barely perceptible, when first opened.  It has tartness and even a little bit of a bitter finish. There might be a hint of cherry here but do not let that make you think sweet. It isn't sweet at all. This is a lovely, crisp, dry rosé.

When I say bitter do not take that as a slight. The word "bitter" has negative connotations but many foods you probably love have bitterness (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, dill, kale, sesame seeds). Not using the word "bitter" leads to using obscure terms to try to disguise the term. Let us revolt! Bitter isn't bad--especially in the context of a well-balanced wine such as Umathum's rosé.

This wine is a blend of varietals that may not be familiar to many in the USA: blaufrankisch, zweigelt and st. laurent. I've written a little about blaufrankisch (and plan to more). Likewise there will shortly be more on these other two varietals. It is fitting that zweigelt winds up in a blend with blaufrankisch and st. laurent since those two grapes are the parents of the zweigelt varietal. Often grapes that are related complement each other in blends; cabernet franc is frequently blended with cabernet sauvignon.

All three of the grapes in this blend produce lovely varietal wines; they are often red but all three also produce varietal rosés. You may even find dessert wines from these varietals (in truth you can get dessert wines from many varietals). This blend should make you curious about these varietals.

If it is hot out it you might want to grab this wine from Austria. Umathum’s wines are, in general, excellent and their rosé is particularly good.

$22-26