Molly Laas: Think Pink For Barefoot Wine Drinking

(Photo credit: fermentation.typepad.com)
Tastemaker: Molly Laas, Huffington Post Blogs

It is hard to know what official position to take on pink wines. Not too long ago, no self-respecting drinker would touch the stuff, as pink wine meant sweet white zinfandel and the tasteless people who like it. Then, the world (and I) discovered lovely French rosés and Spanish rosados, dry, crisp pink wines that make you feel like you're sitting at a seaside restaurant in Cannes, even though you're on your roof in Flatbush, Brooklyn. And it was decided that pink was okay.

Good rosés are fruity, with high acidity, and the best ones have the freshness of a white wine with some of the tannins and depth of a red. This is accomplished when the winemaker leaves the grape skins in the juice for just long enough to impart some color. Then the strained juice is fermented in steel tanks that keep oxygen away from the wine, to preserve its bright fruit flavors.

After its popular acceptance, rosé was granted its proper place at the dinner table; unpretentious drinkers could relax. Then The New York Times trotted out an article dubbing rosés "The Summer Drink to be Seen With" and rosé's fledgling reputation got dragged across the dance floor. Now all sorts of people who don't care about wine, but do care about the Times Style section, are now conspicuously quaffing it at a watering hole near you.

Read the entire blog here.