Wine Time

DINE+WINE - wine time A Rosé

Arose

a SeriouS wine witH lotS oF cHaracter at PiSceS SuSHi Bar

by Trevor Burton | photography by Trevor Burton

You’ve probably noticed that the rosé section of your wine merchant has increased in size over the last few years. I love it. People are beginning to see what a great wine rosé can be. In my mind, rosés were lumped into the group that was, appallingly known as “blush wines.” And they’re breaking free. Whenever someone says, “blush wine,” I turn pale. Rosés are serious wines, more than just an aperitif.

They’re great to drink on a summer afternoon while enjoying some time at the lake. But they more than hold their own when it comes to food. They pair well with seafood, vegetarian, fish, poultry dishes and cheeses. They also stand up flawlessly to all types of cuisine; Mediterranean, Oriental, Creole and Asian dishes. My favorite pairing is with sashimi, more on that later.

Rosé wines are made in the same way that red wines are made. After crushing, juice is left in contact with grape-skins to extract color and taste elements. The difference, in the case of rosé, is that the contact is for only a short period. Just a little of the red color is absorbed—and so, pink instead of red.

There are a couple of approaches. Saignée (bleeding) produces rosé wines as a by-product of red wine soaking. A winemaker may want to impart more tannin and color to his or her red wine; to concentrate it. A way to do this is to bleed off some of the pink juice at an early stage, it intensifies the red wine. The second rosé approach is direct pressing. Grapes are immediately pressed in a wine press to release their juice. Grapes soak for a little while. Then, the pale pink juice is delivered to the fermentation tank.

Rosé wines are made all around the world. But, in my opinion, the benchmark for great wines is in Provence in southern France. They’ve been at for a long time. Rosé it is one of history’s oldest wines. Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans all made wine there, mostly pale in color. And Provence makes a lot of it. Ninety percent of the wine made in the Provence region is rosé. Exports of Provence wines have increased by almost 500% in the space of 15 years. All this shows in the increasing size of the rosé section at our local wine merchants.

By far, the largest producing region is Côtes de Provence. While there is plenty of variation in soil and climate, there is one ubiquitous constant in Provence, “garigue.” Garigue is the French word that describes low, open scrubland with many evergreen shrubs, low trees, aromatic herbs, and bunch-grasses found in poor or dry soil in the Mediterranean region. And that comes through in the wines. Delightful.

Back to sashimi. My wife, Mary Ellen, and I often frequent Pisces sushi bar in Mooresville. We’re drawn there by our love of sashimi. Sashimi is more than just slices of raw fish. The way a fish is sliced is vital. Making sashimi demands expert knife skills to cut and clean each fish in the appropriate manner. Each kind of fish demands its own specific techniques and must be sliced in its own way. A sashimi chef’s actions are deliciously simple, and the outcome is simply delicious.

Perfection, for me, is a dish of delicious sashimi along with a glass of rosé from Côtes de Provence. Yes, rosé is much more than a simple aperitif wine. And sashimi is a work of art. For me, rosé shows its serious side with this kind of food. Delicious.