A Rosé By Any Other Name…
Might Smell as Sweet… but this Vin Gris is dry and delicious!
It was yummy and exactly what we intended but we couldn’t call it a rosé or a blush for that matter. Thirty five years ago, the category had been tainted by overly sweet pink confections that sold well in grocery and liquor stores while fine dining restaurants treated any pink wine as if it were vampire repellant.
So we called it a Vin Gris instead of a rosé and made it by taking top quality Pinot Noir grapes from our organically farmed Carneros vineyards, whole-cluster pressed them to take the juice without the skins and cold fermented it to preserve the beautiful, bright and floral fruit aromatics. The idea was to make a vibrant, crisp and pure wine that could go with a wide array of cuisine from different cultures. Think a classic French brasserie with oysters, frites, pâté or croque-monsieur for lunch and then head to a Mexican restaurant and have it with fish tacos for dinner. The next day you could bring it to a Thai restaurant to go with the Pad Thai, or Indian curry, or stick it in a picnic basket with sandwiches… but one of my favorites is to go to the Low Country and have it with shrimp and grits, an oyster po’boy or even some pimento cheese and crackers.
Vin Gris is a rosé that you can dress up and dress down. You can have it in the heat of the summer at the BBQ or on the slopes in the winter with raclette. With this Vin Gris, it is always rosé season.
Rob Sinskey
