Corey Pierce

Before we jump into summer and the fresh white wines and lagers that go with it, we need a transitional wine, one that fits our unique springtime weather. For me, that’s rosé.

If there is a more misunderstood drink than rosé, I haven’t met it. For some strange reason, Calgarians (especially men) seem to have a hate-on for rosé, believing it to be a sweet, innocuous beverage best left to bridge club meetings. Nothing could be further from the truth. While white Zinfandel had its day and is happily fading into the abyss, dry rosé is making a modest comeback in Wild Rose Country. Even men are starting to get their fat heads around this tasty drink. Once you understand how rosé is made — authentic rosé — you begin to see its many attributes and uses both on and off the dinner table.

Rosé can be made in one of two ways; in more industrial efforts, red wine is blended with a sweet white — this is how most white Zinfandel is made. In real rosé (the kind you actually want to drink), red grapes are allowed a short maceration period on their skins, where colour is slowly leached out. When the desired colour is attained (which can be anything from pale pink to almost fully red), the juice is pumped off the skins and allowed to finish fermenting on its own. This way, much of the character of the grape ends up in the wine, but it remains fresh and without the heavy colour or hard grape tannins. Make no mistake, these wines are dry, they finish fermentation like any other dry wine and can even have fairly significant structure. This type of rosé is perfectly positioned for the table and often works well where you are looking for a heavy white or a light red. Think fish, pork and roasted chicken, but you can also reach for rosé when looking to complement many spicy ethnic meals.

For many people, their rosé renaissance began with a trip to Europe. Sitting at a beachside restaurant on a hot day sipping rosé is the perfect way to discover the wonders of this delectable drink, and there is no reason you can’t take the rosé experience home with you. Calgarians’ biggest resistance to rosé is their false belief that it is all sweet, but this is absolutely false. In fact, if you march into your favourite wine shop today and ask for a bottle of dry rosé, odds are the clerk’s face will light and they will enthusiastically introduce you to a wide selection of fantastic, modestly priced wines. Ask for a sweet rosé, and you will most likely be relegated to a large, dusty bottle of white zin, lingering shamefully in a dark corner.

Dry rosé serves a great purpose both on and off the table. It is magic with barbecued salmon on warm days spent on the deck, it’s the ultimate picnic wine for cold chicken and potato salad, and when you can’t decide between red or white, it is there so you don’t have to. Here is a short list of some fantastic rosé available at top Calgary wine shops:

• VF Rosé, Costieres de Nimes, France. $13

• Domaine Lafond Tavel, Rhone Valley, France. $22

• Chateau Lancyre Rosé, Pic Saint-Loup, France. $18

• Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Rosé, Loire Valley, France. $16

• Domaine Montrose, Vin de Pays, Cotes de Thongue, France. $14

• Pierre Gaillard Collioure Rosé, France. $20