this heaven gives me migraine

2004 Red Car "Think Pink" Rosé

Region: California, US

Composition: Not sure, but it smells/tastes like Syrah

Background: I admit, I bought this on a rosé-buying spree (not just for the nifty bottle and very good label, but also because I really liked Red Car's "The Fight" when I had it back in May), but it is interesting that I am drinking it tonight, since I have been thinking a lot about people who take a chance to do what they want to do in life. People who do something that seems crazy or that requires faith in themselves, or even people who just pick up and change something because that is what they think they want. People without fear. (Or, maybe, people with fear but who are optimists or foolish or very very smart.) I am not one of those people, or at least I am one of those people who moves like a tortoise and needs to examine and overthink every decision and plan for all possible failures, including meteors, plagues of locusts, and the possibility that I will sprout a second head from my shoulders à la How to Get Ahead in Advertising, so I envy the people who decide something and then do it within a decade.

A few years ago, Carroll Kemp and Mark Estrin fled Hollywood to take a chance and make wine, first scraping together a couple of thousand dollars to make their first 50 barrels in Kemp's driveway, then procuring investment money to buy vineyards, and finally quitting their day jobs for the wine life. It was definitely one of those leap of faith endeavors, and they made it happen. They aren't enormously famous or anything, but they make small quantities of wine they love and love to make, and they get some money for it (and some recognition in wine circles). That isn't so bad, is it?

Kemp and Estrin named their winery "Red Car" after the old red Pacific Electric streetcars that used to be part of Southern California's transit system before that was all removed (silly transit systems, what's the point?) so the land could become Land of Cars. Hollywood storytelling came with them to their new jobs, becoming evident on their wine labels (not for this rosé, for some reason, but for all the other wines I have seen); each label has a paragraph telling a noir-style story about the wine, its name (usually something like "The Stranger" or "All-Night Radio") and the feeling it evokes. Supposedly, taken all together, the wine stories will tell a bigger story. This is something you don't see on labels every day, and while some people might find it hokey, I think it's creative and interesting enough. It's not like wine labels are usually that informative, and I tend not to trust them when they tell me things about the wine, anyway, so why not do something creative? It's way better than something horrible like "luxurious raspberry caresses your palate while oak-kissed cherries drift in and out on a tide of sumptuousness". Go, Red Car, tell me a story rather than feed me that kind of stuff.

Sadly, part of the Red Car story is that a few months ago, in May, Mark Estrin died of brain cancer at 57. I am glad that he (as the story goes) listened to the fortune cookie that made him brave enough to take the leap and join his friend Carroll Kemp to form Red Car, and in doing it found something that he loved.

Notes: This is a dark rosé, one of those rosés that is really almost a red. It's a cherry red in the glass, clear but intense, and has slightly salmon highlights. The rosepetal and strawberry/raspberry nose will almost bowl you over when you open the bottle. It's aggressive and mouthfilling with enough acid to hold up to the intense red fruit followed by a cola and spice finish. The spice was rigid and slightly bitter when I opened the bottle, but is now softening with a little exposure to air and while the spice is staying, the bitterness is going away. The spice makes me think this is probably Syrah, and this is one of those wines that starts out slow but ramps up to a big finish.

I think I like it better once it sits out for a while and calms down. It's a little over the top for me straight from the bottle, and nice after a half hour or so sitting around. I just let some sit out for about two hours, and now the nose has faded to almost nothing, but it still has the soft, watery start ending in a big burny spicy finish that really sticks around with you for a while. I think it is somewhat challenging and I don't absolutely love it, but it is interesting to drink and I am enjoying it despite its flaws. Maybe I will have the rest tomorrow night with actual food and see how that goes. I kind of had ice cream for dinner (not much, and with a lot of peaches and nectarines, so that isn't as bad as it sounds) and did not drink the wine with it because that would have been very very bad.

Cost: $15

Overall: B (maybe a B-)

2005 Pink Out!

Yesterday RAP held the first annual Pink Out! rosé tasting at Butterfly, a restaurant up at Pier 30 here in SF. I have been a little obsessed with rosé and was interested in trying a slew of them, since man can only consume so much wine bottle by bottle. And I recently missed not one but two rosé tastings and wanted to make up for that.

It was pretty obvious it was the first tasting this particular group had put on, and they have a few things to get sorted out before the next one. The venue was a little small (it was crowded at the trade tasting and I know the public tasting sold out... I can't imagine how packed that was), but I think that has been a problem at about 80 percent of the tastings I have been to recently. The spit bucket situation was dire enough that I felt completely justified in my habit of carrying my own personal spit cup (an old travel coffee mug) at tastings. There were some tables lacking buckets completely, and some tables had cocktail shakers in place of actual buckets. As you can imagine, these things were hard to hit when spitting; I saw a lot of people struggling with that. The buckets also got scarily full before someone thought to empty them, which was at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half into the event.

The crowd leaned more towards the marketing types/trade and for some reason there were a lot of groups of 4-5 people who seemed to be there to get loaded or stand around chatting (I am not sure who these people were; I got the idea that they knew someone who knew someone who got them in). At one point I was delighted and horrified to overhear one man telling another man something along these lines:

"Rosé is great because it has a little residual sugar in it, it tastes really good, Southern women love it, and you can get it out of your clothes easily if you spill it... so if you want to market a wine to people after Memorial Day, what with the white clothes and everything, it's ROSÉ!"

I fully expect to see some rosé in the future marketed to women solely on the fact that, unlike pesky Nebbiolo or Syrah, it's easy to get out of those white capris if you spill it. Which is, of course, what women are looking for in wine, isn't it?

The wines themselves were all over the map, quality-wise (and temperature-wise; they ranged from teeth-freezingly chilled to lackadaisically room-temperature). I was personally a little surprised at the amount of candylike fruitiness in many of the wines, but I guess my taste in rosé tends to run to the European. I am not usually looking for a particular style, but tend to like the drier and more mineral styles. I am not opposed to some fruit, but the finish still needs to be high-acid to even it out. I don't like a ton of wood, normally, and I don't like the spritz of CO2 in a rosé, although I like it fine in some whites. And as you can see by some of the wines that I liked, these rules are made to be broken.

Anyway, here is what I tasted and my general notes on each wine. There were a lot of wines that I could drink in the right situation, but they did not wow me at the tasting. Maybe I am too hard on wines at tastings; I know the more I think about a wine the more critical I get, so I have to take that into consideration, but that's what tastings are for, right? Why drink so-so wine when you can choose good wine? In any case, I mentally clumped the wines into a few categories... wine I liked, wine that I could drink but didn't love or hate, wine that I didn't like, and problematic wine. All things considered, it was great to have a chance to taste all these wines, and I look forward to the next Pink Out!

*The Good:

2004 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Il Gufo Barbera interesting nose, not floral or candy or fruit, slightly earthy/bloody, I like it because I like Barbera and it has a nice snap, starts out very snappy (at my snappy limit) but then evens out, very candy pink in the glass which makes you think it will be way fruitier than it is

2004 Perbacco Rosé (Pinot Noir, Petite Sirah) interesting nose, has a lot of Pinot qualities, slightly medicinal, slightly leathery, some prickly spice on finish from Petite Sirah, a little bit big for a rosé but also kinda good, definitely one of the more unusual wines... am I looking for a Pinot Noir at this point?

2004 Marques de Carçeres Rosé nice acids on the finish, a little bit of earth and rock, nice fruit that is not overwhelming

2004 Domaine de Nizas Rosé from Languedoc soft, placid, feminine but austere

2004 Sanford Pinot Noir Vin Gris pale salmon, soft raspberry cherry strawberry nose, floral, elegant, nice

2003 Château Potelle Riviera (60% Syrah, 40% Zinfandel) very girly, a lot of cherry and raspberry, for a girly wine it was alright, even if slightly on the fruity side-- was I was losing my resolve against fruitiness this late in the game? (they were in the home stretch for me)

2003 Château La Rouviere Rosé AC Bandol (Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Grenache) very woody/tobacco-ey in the finish, rocky, not a lot of fruit

2004 Château Routas "Rouviere" Rosé (40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Cinsault) Syrah sees a little ML, so it is softer-- very soft, plain yet elegant like French rosés are, nice acids on finish

2004 Tablas Creek Rosé (62% Mourvèdre, 28% Grenache, 10% Counoise) very pleasant, has a lot of fruit flavor but that is saved by the acid finish which is very good

2004 Iron Horse Rosé of Pinot Noir I like it better than the Sangiovese, it is not overwhelmingly fruity, very soft and round

2003 Ventana Rosato (90% Grenache, 10% Syrah) all about raspberry in nose, lots of green brambly dark raspberry in the mouth, kind of interesting and I like it, although that surprises me, and it isn't particularly rosé-like

2004 Mas de Cadenet Rosé (40% Grenache, 30% Cinsault, 30% Syrah) Côte de Provence, rocky, mineral, nice resistance on the palate

2004 Maitres Vignerons de Saint Tropez Château de Pampelonne Rosé (50% Grenache, 40% Cinsault, 10% Tibouren) softer and rounder than the Cadenet which I had just had, but also more acidic

2004 Château Marouine Rosé (Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Carignane, maybe some Syrah) lots of mineral and rock, very hard and maybe a little too hard, but okay (I had this at dinner the night before the tasting and was eh on it until I had it with food when it was much better, and I liked it a lot more at the tasting)

*Didn't Make Me Go Yay [sic] or Nay, Really (Wine Purgatory!):

2003 Alderbrook Dry Creek Valley Rosé (Zinfandel, Carignane, Syrah) fruity finish, slightly medicinal

2004 Amador Foothill Rosé of Sangiovese prickly and earthy, not a lot of fruit, possibly too acidic (and I like acidic), but nice

2004 Bonny Doon DEWN Sangiovese Rosé slightly herbal/piney at finish, slightly too acidic

Chateau d'Aqueria Rosé Tavel (50% Grenache, 20% Clairette, 15% Cinsault, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Bourboulenc) light, pleasant enough but not blowing me away

2004 Château du Rouet Cuvée Reservée lots of raspberry strawberry and soapy in the mouth, but I think raspberry can be soapy on my palate and that is what I am getting

2004 Chimney Rock Rosé of Cabernet Franc dark red, slightly fruity (not as much as the Alderbrook, which I had right before it) but kind of dull

2004 Goats do Roam Rosé I liked this a lot more than I expected given that 1- it is from S. Africa 2- It has Pinotage in it and 3- I did not like the GdR red I recently had, slightly animal/gamey on nose but not too much, and the finish is intense

2004 Herzog Wine Cellars Zin Gris Special Reserve wacky, smells like full-grown Zin in the glass, hot fruit funk and bramble, blackberry, and tastes like regular Zinfandel minus some tannin, you might not know this was a rosé if you didn't see it, interesting

Jean Luc Colombo Cote Bleue Rosé (40% Syrah, 40% Mourvèdre, 20% Counoise)

2003 Kuleto Rosato very pale in the glass, a slight earthy nose, not enough acid, too fruity, but other than the too-fruity low acid finish, was interesting

2004 Mantra Bliss Rosé (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel) slight peppery bite at finish, some rigidity, starts out smooth and ends up jaggedy

2004 Niebaum-Coppola Sofia Rosé of Pinot Noir a very girly soapy (raspberry) nose, not cloying but not remarkable

2004 Ruby Wine Company Rosé (Cabernet Franc, etc) alright, a fair amount of fruit

2004 Rutherford Hill Rosé of Merlot candy pink in glass, slightly cloying

2004 Saintsbury Vin Gris (Pinot Noir) seemed a little lost to me, like it didn't know what it was or where it was going, very vague

2004 Scherrer Vin Gris (Zinfandel, Pinot Noir) on the first taste I liked it, because it had a growing, burning acidity on the finish that expanded in the mouth, but on the second sip I was not so sure and didn't like the aftertaste/feeling

2004 SoloRosa California Rosé (50% Merlot, 50% Sangiovese) meh, not bad but not overly interesting

2004 Toad Hollow Eye of the Toad Pinot Noir Rosé slightly clean/soapy, cherry candy, but not sweet... almost a little too much on the bitter side

2004 Verdad Rosé (95% Grenache, 5% Tempranillo) Tempranillo shows in the finish with a woody rustic toasty thing, slightly interesting, but unusual

2004 Vinavera Rosé (87% Syrah, 13% Grenache) very pink in the glass, well-balanced, the kind of rosé you could get out at a party and everyone would dig it, user-friendly

*Made Me Go Huh:

2004 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare I really don't like the finish, it's lingering medicinal fruit, iodiney, very strange

2004 Carol Shelton Rendezvous Rosé mmm, lifesavers

NV Domaine Chandon Etoile Rosé (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay) overwhelming mousse and the nose is reminiscent of ecologically correct household cleanser

2004 Fife Redhead Rosé of Carignane what's that CO2 doing in my Carignane? It's a little too snappy for me with the CO2 that tingles the tongue

2004 Fleming Jenkins San Francisco Bay Syrah Rosé who knew Peggy Fleming had a winery? she does, and had a signed photo on the table, wow, somebody put C02 AND sugar in my Syrah! definitely not my thing

2004 Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois Rosé (Merlot, Syrah, Gerwurztraminer) lots of Gewurz in the nose, very spicy and floral, way too candylike with sweet fruit on the palate, not enough acid

2004 Gargiulo Rosato di Sangiovese not much on nose, soapy raspberry-cherry coughdrop in the mouth

2004 Iron Horse Rosato di Sangiovese too fruity and sweet, finish might be dry but you could fool me

NV Korbel Brut Rosé (Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc) very fruity, raspberry-ey

2004 La Veille Ferme Rosé (Cinsault, Syrah, etc) cough syrup on finish

2003 Meeker Pink Elephant a little too much fruity-sweety-spice

2004 McDowell Valley Vineyards Grenache Rosé not much on the nose, tastes like water with some diluted candy in it

2003 Michel Schlumberger Rosé of Pinot Noir pale pink, odd nose of camphor, slightly medicinal

2004 Miner Rosato don't like the nose, the nose had a lot of funk like unwashed laundry, but was okay in the mouth

2004 Montevina Nebbiolo Rosato slightly too much on finish, rather like some Nebbiolo can be... raisiny, maybe some RS?

2004 Pedroncelli Zinfandel Rosé again, somebody put their CO2 in my rosé and that doesn't make it taste any better

2003 Peju Province (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, French Colombard) smells a little foxy with a lot of overpowering fruit and not much acid

2004 Rutherford Hill Rosé of Merlot candy pink in glass, slightly cloying

2004 Toad Hollow Eyes of the Toad Reserve Pinot Noir Rosé way too much oak for a rosé, the nose is overwhelmingly oaky and odd

2004 Unti Vineyards Grenache Rose (75% Grenache, 25% Mourvèdre) snappy upfront with a yeasty/beery finish in the rear

2004 Unti Syrah Rosé they made this Syrah bleed off to put with the Grenache but didn't like it so they bottled it up and just figured whatever, and it definitely lacks character, very subdued

*Problematic:

2004 Van Ruiten Family Rosé of Cab-Shiraz very sulphurous/cauliflower/cabbage/onion nose, it smelled very unpleasant and I didn't want to put it in my mouth-- I did so against my better judgement, but I think there is a mercaptan fault (at least in the bottle I had) because this wine was not clean: DNPIM

2004 Rosé de Calon

Region: St. Estèphe, Bordeaux, France

Composition: Either 100% Cabernet Sauvignon or approximately 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, depending who you believe (I would tend to believe the latter)

Background: Château Calon-Ségur is in St. Estèphe, and just happens to be the northernmost Cru Classé (3ème Cru) in the Haut-Médoc region of Bordeaux. It sits at the heart of what used to be the Calon estate, an estate that once took up most of the St. Estèphe commune. In the early 1700s Nicolas-Alexandre, Marquis de Ségur, became owner of Calon (and Lafite and Latour and Mouton, for that matter) when his father died. He supposedly once said "I make wine at Lafite and Latour but my heart is at Calon" and because of that, the Calon-Ségur wines have a heart on the label (except for this rosé which has no heart for some reason; maybe they thought pink+heart=too much, or perhaps it got lesser treatment since it is a humble rosé and maybe a newcomer to the Calon-Ségur lineup).

The sprawling Calon estate has been chopped up into smaller parcels over time, spawning such other estates as Phelan-Ségur. Madame Denise Gasqueton now owns the existing 123 acres and makes about 20,000 cases of wine a year from the land. She took over in 1995 after her husband Philippe died (this is not a usual occurrence, from what I understand; most wives are unprepared or uninterested and sell instead of continuing the business), first surprising people with her determination and shrewd business sense, and then releasing a 1995 vintage that kicked ass and took names. She's continued to make a lot of solid wines that are not ridiculously priced like a lot of Left Bank wines.

Wines from St. Estèphe can be very intense, rough, and tannic due to the clay and granite soils and usually need a good amount of cellaring to come into their own, so this rosé is your chance to get a Calon-Ségur that you will be able to drink before the next decade!

Notes: This is a chameleon pink... it looks deep pink in the glass, from far away, almost strawberry, but when you tilt the glass it turns pale and becomes a much lighter dusky rose. The nose is forthcoming, offering cranberry and strawberry, and in the mouth it is very dry and full of steely strawberry, the steeliness something the nose hints at but doesn't let you know for sure. It's very intense, acidic, and dry, and a good example of what a rosé can (should) be. I think I want some more, and I can't wait to have it with our yellow cherry tomatoes, garlic, romano beans, and basil over some pasta because it is very hot and I can't bear to cook anything else.

The acid on this is high... I don't mind it on the palate but I have noticed that I feel certain high-acid wines in my chest (similar to the way you feel alcohol warming you, but it is not as pleasant) and I can't drink a lot of it all at once, or I have to be careful to temper it with food. This is one of those wines for me, which is sad because I would like to sit around and drink it all day.

Cost: $12

Overall: A-

2004 Etude Rosé

Region: Carneros, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: Yet another notch in my Pinot Noir/Rosé belt. Of the rosés I have had in recent months, this is my favorite, my weirdness about Etude notwithstanding. I am continuing to try others, partly because this one is pricey for a rosé and hard to get, and partly because, well, what is life without experimentation? I still love it. I can tell I love it because I tend to hoard it and when occasions come up, I debate if they are worth the Etude Rosé. I can't hoard it too long, though, because then I would have old rosé and that could be ugly.

Tony Soter made this wine before, but stopped production about a decade ago. The masses have been clamoring for its return (or he thought it was worth revisiting) and he's making it again- this 2004 version was a trial run of 600 cases. I hear he sold them all, and quickly. Bacar (watch out, silly flash intensive site with a possibly outdated menu/wine list) has this on their glass menu right now, for anyone wanting to try it without serious commitment. It looks like K&L also has a few bottles left.

Etude has been around since about 1982, and is Soter's original effort to make wine, hence the name "Etude" (French for "study"). The focus is Pinot Noir, but Soter also makes a couple of other wines under the label. In 2001, Beringer Blass bought Etude, which Soter says allowed him to expand and improve the winery without going into debt/taking on partners. This move probably also allowed Soter to focus more on his other label, Soter Vineyards, located up in Oregon, and explore his interest in sparkling wine as well as continue his work with Pinot Noir.

Notes: This may possibly be the girliest wine in existence, and I mean that in a good way. It's a very feminine wine... elegant and refined and soft. In the glass it is a clear salmon pink with some orangey glints, and the nose is goregous... all honeysuckle and strawberries with honey and rose. In the mouth it is full of berry fruit, mostly strawberry and cherry, and has a soft finish full of more berry and rose. There is some acid in the finish, but not a ton, and it is silky and pillowy and the flavor lingers for a long time. I think part of the reason I like it so much is that everything is so well-integrated and balanced that it is a pleasure to drink. If you could drink a glass of silk and soft velvet, this would be it. It has a ton of fruit in it, but is not sweet or cloying.

Cost: $18

Overall: A

2004 Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot Noir

This is the rosé of stress that turned into the rosé of celebration. I had big plans for this WBW, and have five different rosés socked away. I was going to compare and contrast! I was going to drink more than one! And then Helsinki happened. Or didn't happen, really.

As of last Wednesday, I had a trip to Helsinki planned for work the week of the 15th. As of Thursday, nobody was going. As of Friday, no one was sure who was going but somebody was going. As of yesterday, we the involved were going, and I rushed to find a ticket and buy one. As of 5.15 this (Tuesday) afternoon, I was not going and wasn't supposed to. In between all that fun the last few days have been a lot of scrambling and preparation and you name it for this trip.

So I just spent some nerve-wracking time on the phone with Joshua of Expedia (who rocks) and he got everything cancelled and sorted out and once I return the power adapters I picked up, the only money I am out for the trip is for some books and magazines I picked up to read on the plane, things I will happily read anyway. And now I can do the things I wanted to do the weekends before and after without fear of stress or jetlag.

While I was on the phone dealing with this latest crisis I remembered that I needed to drink some rosé for Wine Blogging Wednesday 9, and here we are! I am only doing one, and I decided to get out a bottle of the Robert Sinskey, since everybody is going so nuts for it around these parts. I was hoping it would live up to the Etude Rosé, which I had about two weeks ago, and it was so good I am trying to track some more down.

In any case, I will either have to drink and post about a lot more rosés this summer, or have some sort of rosé party and compare the remaining three or four bottles. In the meantime, I have this.

Region: Carneros, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: I don't know much about Robert Sinskey, other than that he was an advertising/photographer guy before he started making wine, because his dad (also named Robert) needed help at the winery. Dad Sinksey founded the winery in the late 1970's after retiring from medicine, but got called back into things because of his creation of an artificial lens for the human eye. Thus he hit up his son (who, it seems, was questioning his career choice) to come work for him, and here we are today. Their winemaker, Jeff Virnig, joined them as assistant winemaker in 1988 and became one of the youngest winemakers in the valley when he took over the reins in 1991.

I do know a little about rosé wines; mainly that there are three ways to make them:

1- You take black grapes, press them, and immediately run off and ferment the resulting juice (which is usually very pale). This makes a vin gris.
2- You take black grapes, press them, and let the juice sit for a few hours (maybe a day or two) with the skins before runoff and fermentation, so that the juice is colored by the skins, but not so much color as you would get for a red wine.
3- You use the saignée method, and dump all of your black grapes into a tank and press them. Once they sit a while, you bleed off some of the juice (hence the name) to make your rosé. And then you can make red wine with the leftovers if you want. This is like #1 above but you get both rosé and red wine out of the deal (and the red wine is usually pretty intense, since you have the same concentration of pips and skins and tannins, but with less juice).

You can also blend red wine and white wine to make rosé, but that is becoming more uncommon and is considered cheesy, especially in Europe, where it is banned outside of Champagne (rosé Champagne is made that way, and it is the exception). And contrary to what a lot of people think about pink wine, most (or at least a lot) of rosé is dry, not sweet and candylike.

Notes: It's slightly too pink to really be salmon, but it is a goregous color. Let's say rosy salmon in the glass, clear as water. It's got a fairly uncomplicated nose of toast and strawberries, with hints of grapefruit and some white flowers like jasmine. On the palate it has a lot more strawberry and cherry, and has a zingy finish that is all lemon and citrus. I thought the finish was slightly bitter and a little too acidic when it was freshly opened, but once it sat out for a little while and softened up, it was more enjoyable (the bitterness never completely went away, though). Or maybe it was the fact that I was off the phone and very relieved. Or the fact that I had a salad with it (mâche and pears with some goat cheese and simple vinaigrette).

Cost: $15

Overall: B