The other night, a decision had to be made about what to serve with a couple disparate of dishes that could play well with both. A white simply would get overwhelmed but a red was a little too heavy. The answer, which worked beautifully, was a pink wine. Rosé in the winter? Why not? Granted winters here in Southern California aren’t necessarily all that severe. This year, so far, it has been a particularly mild one. But, consistent with our message, pink wines can play all year long as aperitifs or perfect solutions with a variety of dishes, even ones consumed indoors!
The industry itself has done a marginal job handling the explosion in popularity of rosé wines. Far too many folks have gotten involved in rose production with no experience and have littered the landscape with pinks that are flabby, alcoholic, and not particularly distinctive. The ‘good guys’, the proven performers responsible for initiating the craze in the first place, are still doing great work and it is those that we focus on.
Cavalchina has been on our shelves in various colors over the years…red, white, and pink. They are a quality producer in the Veneto that makes consistently exciting wines in a place that, by and large, is mainly seen as the source of mass marketed, innocuous efforts from wine ‘factories’ destined for red-checkered tablecloth eateries…Bardolino. The Cavalchina folks are shining stars in a region that is largely uninspired. The Chiaretto (key-ar-et-to)is what they call their rosé. This is a winery that has been around since 1948 and Vinous Media’s Ian D’Agata calls them, “…a recognized master in the making of Chiarettos.”
A brief word about pinks in general. The industry as a whole has created an image in the public’s mid that buying rosé is like buying fish. You want it as fresh as possible. That is true to a point. You won’t necessarily get the best experience out of a 5 or six year old pink. But some rosés aren’t even released until they are a year old, and others (like Tavel, for example) don’t hit their full potential until year two and cruise into year three.
In fact, a lot pinks hit the shelves these days too early, before they are really settled in. We are keenly aware of that as we have been tasting 2019s since mid-January. Our point is that this offering isn’t about ‘unloading’ one of the best rosé values on the floor like yesterday’s bread. We simply had so much other stuff come our way over the last six moths that we never got around to doing this piece. This little beauty has enough verve, texture, and subtle minerality to waltz through the next summer and beyond. It’s a little less ‘fizzy’ than it was last spring, but we don’t see that as an issue. All of the fresh citrus/melon flavors and mineral/saline augments are perfectly on point.
D’Agata’s narrative explains a lot about the technical aspects of the Cavalchina Bardolino Chiaretto 2018, besides providing a rather impressive score for a pink wine, “Straw-pink with a copper tinge. The very clean nose offers fresh pomegranate, apple, pear and herb aromas. Then also clean and fresh in the mouth, with some hints of residual sweetness enrobing the melon and pink grapefruit flavors. A lovely Rosé from a recognized master in the making of Chiarettos. Made with a blend of (native varietals) 55% Corvina, 35% Rondinella and 10% Molinara; the presence of the latter grape is absolutely key in explaining this wine’s freshness and saline bent (plus the fact that many of this estate’s vines are extremely old, planted back in 1911)…93 points.”
Our little meal last week reaffirmed the idea that it is great to have some pink wine around all the time. For aperitif, and a great many food ‘applications,’ this outstanding pink makes a lot of sense year round. It belongs in everyone’s working wine matrix. The price ($14.98), given the performance, only enhances the proposition. We apologize for getting to this one a little later than we wanted. But, trust us, this is a value gem and a bright, stylish ‘winner’ who’s ‘expiration date’ is still quite a ways off.