Rose
On May 24, 2024, we had our vertical rose tasting with food pairings. From a food pairing perspective, rose is very different from white or red. A pretty unique list of food to pair with rose came together in my research with things I haven't made to pair with wine yet so I was extra curious and excited right off the bat. Rose is a wine typically made from red grapes that only spend a brief amount of time with the skins. Since color and tannin come from the skins, this results in the rosey pink color of most roses. These fun wines are uniquely pale pink to orange in color, high acid and boast fruit flavors like strawberry and watermelon. They can be floral, earthy and have some interesting very soft tannins, especially if the saignee method is used. The saignee method presses out some juice early on in the process and discards it, concentrating the flavor of what is left and increasing tannin. For this tasting we had three Maryland roses and one from Pennsylvania. Catoctin's 2022 cabernet franc rose, Sugarloaf Mountain's 2022, Love Point’s and Folino's Rosato were our line-up. For the food, there was cesar salad cups, strawberry, goat cheese filo cups, pigs in a blanket, ham & brie paninis, guacamole, tzatziki, honey mustard, pesto pasta, pesto mayo, champagne cheddar, cucumbers and crackers. The first one we tried was the Catoctin. It had aromas and flavors of red apple, lemon, rose and strawberry. It was light and delicate with an oily mouth feel and a great finish. This style paired best with our strawberry goat cheese cups, parmesan crisps, guacamole and paninis. The Sugarloaf we did a bottle review podcast on so check that out as well. This one was made using the saignee method so it had some mellow tannin. It is also a blend of I believe five different grapes including merlot and cabernet franc. We got rose, stone, lime, orange peel, cherry and strawberry on this one. It was very complex and the dryest and highest in acid. It was really good with the pigs in a blanket, cesar salad cups and the tzatziki and cucumbers. Folino's Rosato was off dry with notes of charcoal, smoke, oak, grapefruit and strawberrry. This was great with the pesto pasta, cesar salad cups, goat cheese and strawberries and champagne cheddar. Love Point's was the sweetest. We said off-dry in the bottle review podcast but it may have even been semi-sweet. It had aromas of clay, rose, white flowers and lemon. Cherry, strawberry and lemon were on the palate with maybe even a little peach. Pigs in a blanket and strawberry goat cheese cups were great with this wine plus I'll mention that the owners put aged gouda on the bottle as their suggested pairing. This was a very interesting tasting and pairing with new foods we haven't paired with wine yet so that was cool. It's also a wine tasting where yes, they were all the same type of wine, rose, but each one was made using different grapes and levels of sweetness so they each had their own unique personalities. Give some of these a try while you can!
