Producer: Pax Wine Cellars
Wine: Rose’ of Syrah
Vintage: 2003
Country: U.S.A.
Appellation: Sonoma County
Wine Type: Rosé and Grenache
Varietal: Syrah
Grade: B+
Designation: Excellent Value
Price: $16

To begin with, I’m skeptical about Rosés. I approach them with trepidation. I avoid them like co-workers who tell bad puns, or insurance agents trying to sell me a universal life policy. Maybe this was because of bad experiences with those soda pop Rosés my mother would serve on Sunday afternoons that had more to do with marketing than wine. Could be the White Zinfandel effect. Could be I don’t like the color pink. And it could be because it’s a tweener wine that can’t make up its mind whether it’s a red or a white. You know, like that age-old bisexual question that has no good answer. But a friend had passed a bottle of this Pax Rosé of Syrah to me and it had been sitting in the fridge for several weeks. I was having some Opah with a macadamia crust and an orange-ginger sauce for dinner one evening and thought I’d give my wife the option between the Pax and an Alsatian white. She opted for the pink wine and I gave myself a little kick. Turned out to be a surprising lesson about preconceptions and prejudice. First off, the wine was more of a cranberry color than pink. And perhaps it was this color that threw me off. I took a sip expecting a tart hit of cranberry juice with sugar added to make it palatable. Fortunately, that’s not what we got. We got confusion, something different than either one of us anticipated. At first we couldn’t tell if we liked it or not. We sniffed, swirled, tasted, and looked each other in the eye with quizzical, perplexed looks. After a few seconds my wife spoke, “I don’t dislike it,” she said. “It’s different,” I added. We tried again. Now, on the back label, Pax had recommended drinking this well-chilled and with good company. The wine was definitely chilled after three weeks in the fridge door and I had declared my wife as good company years before when I said, “I do.” We were covered. In fact, the wine may have been too chilled. It was difficult reading any aromas that the cranberry-colored wine might have, no doubt its fragrance molecules were stiff and slow from the cold. On the palate I could detect some strawberries with flowers and meadow type flavors, but nothing that hit me in the eye. It’s as if the Rosé hadn’t woken from hibernation. We both shrugged our shoulders and began eating our fish. And then an odd thing happened. As the wine warmed up a bit and we intermingled sips of wine with the Opah, the wine began to stretch and unwind. Its dryness contradicted our impressions of the Rosé. In fact, the wine reminded me more of a light red than a true Rosé, which is not a bad thing at all. The bouquet started to open up and the wine took on stronger flavors of wild strawberries, red raspberries, and white pepper. It was bright and lush all in one gulp and went perfectly with our fish. The question was, did the wine make the fish better or was it the other way around? In the end it didn’t matter. The wine had begun low on the grading scale and at best was average. But then its character and true nature kicked in and our appreciation did an about-face. After the last bite of fish and the last sip of wine, my wife asked if I could get another bottle. And not wanting to disappoint her, I agreed. After all, she’s good company.

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Producer: Capiaux
Wine: “Swink” Pinot Noir Rose
Vintage: 2003
Country: USA
Appellation: California
Wine Type: Rose
Primary Varietal: Pinot Noir
Grade: B+
Designation: Good and Cheap
Price: $12

Drink Swink? Well, you should, cuz it’s delish! Now, don’t second-guess yourself with this Pinot. Put it in the fridge! What? Yes. Put it in the fridge. Trust me. After chilling, pour a glass, observe. Ruby. Smell. Cranberry shoe polish? Sip. Tart. Acid, acid, acid, SUGAR. Tannins. Soft. Is your mouth watering? Good. Have another sip. Taste those sulphites? Yeah, me too. That may be my only complaint with Swink. Once you get over it, and after you realize you’ve imbibed half a bottle, well, you’re having so much fun with this wine, you don’t care. Swink is addictive. The odd balance between acid and sugar makes you crave savory things. Particularly for me, garlic shrimp. Mmm, garlic fries! I don’t know why, but Swink gives you the munchies. If you’re on a diet, I do not recommend Swink. If you want to have fun, be a rebel (red in the fridge), and wow your “I only drink white’s” friends, then I not only recommend Swink, but for $12, I insist that you try it!

Review by Deborah Hanousek

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Producer: Rosenblum Cellars
Wine: Rhodes Vineyard Grenache Rosé
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Appellation: Redwood Valley
Wine Type: Rosé
Primary Varietal: Grenache
Grade: B
Price: $9

So, I’m still just warming up to the Rosé. Anything neither red nor white scares me a little bit. It could be traumatic memories of White Zinfandel in boxes of wine kept in my college dorm room closet for months on end, I’m not quite sure. Anyway, I’ve had a couple of good ones. Rosenblum did a nice job here. Berries, berries, berries and more berries abound.

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