If it’s summer, it’s time for the question that drives wine snobs crazy, strikes fear into the hearts of the mild-mannered and timid everywhere, and sends dogs scurrying for cover.
Is it OK to drink pink wine?
The answer — and the oenophiles in the audience are no doubt cringing, ready to send mass e-mails in protest — is that of course it’s OK to drink pink wine. The first rule of wine, as regular readers of this space should know by heart, is that good wine is wine that one likes.
But there is pink wine, and there is pink wine. Not all of it is white zinfandel, the wine the wine snobs love to hate, because it’s too pink and too sweet and too popular. The other pink wine is actually rosé, made with red grapes. Much is not sweet, well made, usually inexpensive and, served well chilled, a terrific bottle to pass around on a hot summer evening or to eat with big salads or cold chicken. Consider the following:
• Texas Hills Rosato di Sangiovese 2001 ($10). The Sangiovese grape produces sturdy red wines. The rosé for this Hill Country winery is certainly sturdy, but also fruity and not too dry.
• Toad Hollow Dry Pinot Noir Rosé 2002 ($12). Ah, for the days when this was an $8 bottle of wine. It combines the fruit of the pinot noir grape with the sippability of the best rosés.
• Gruet Grand Rosé 1999 ($30). May not be easy to find and a bit pricey, but worth the effort. This is a sparkling wine, produced in
New Mexico by a veteran of the French Champagne business, that is creamy, a touch sweet and very fruity.
