The Return of Cote de Roses

Remember that time I found a gorgeous bottle of rosé and found myself on my very own personal quest to find it?

Well that wine ended up becoming a Vintages Essential, meaning it’s now a mainstay of the LCBO’s catalogue. On the one hand I feel slightly sheepish for having made such a mission out of finding it, but on the other hand the adventure was fun! And it seems the world has rewarded me by making the wine readily available.

I bought a bottle of this delicious nectar last summer and didn’t have the chance to open it, so last fall I thought ‘you know what? I’m going to save it until next summer and then we’ll see how it stood the test of time’.

This is a bit of a weird thing to do.

Aged Rosé? Is That Even a Thing?

It is now!

I mean, no it’s not usually a thing. Rosés, especially French ones, are light and fruity by nature, and don’t tend to have the things that make a wine age-worthy (tannin, oak treatment, high alcohol content), so saving it on purpose doesn’t make a lot of sense. But sometimes I don’t make a lot of sense! So save it I did, and drink it now I will (excuse the Yoda-ness).

To be honest, I didn’t mean to save it, but summer ended before I had the chance last year and my interest in rosés drops dramatically once the weather cools down. Once the nights started getting cool again it was clear to me that I wouldn’t be opening this bottle until summer 2017. So, let’s experiment!

Did it hold up?

Well, you can certainly tell that I first wrote about this wine before taking any classes. Here’s what I said about it:

“Light and subtle, the nose and flavour dance on your tongue, sharing with you hints here and there of the essence of Southern France.”

Embarrassing writing aside, there’s no real description! Yeesh. Way to go, Past Meg.

The Gerard Bertrand website, on the other hand, says the wine is “A soft, pale, brilliant pink with aromas of summer fruits, cassis, redcurrant and floral notes, and fresh and full on the palate.”

Hmmm. Let’s find out if this two-year old bottle is even remotely like that, shall we?

Tasting Notes

• The wine is still very vibrant in the glass, or ‘brilliant’ as my instructor would want me to say.
• It’s also a bit orange-tinged, which can sometimes be a sign of age in a white wine. But other than that the colour is a light blush/rose pink. Interesting!
• The nose doesn’t give me much fruit, which is disappointing but not surprising. (Wines lose their fruitiness as they age – a wine this young losing its fruit is a clear sign I should have drunk this ages ago. Yay for experiments??)
• There’s also a stoney, minerality going on on the nose, so at least it’s still got something going for it.
• The palate still has fruit, thank goodness! Strawberry, cherry, a bit of plum, and some red currant all swirl around.
• It’s still got some bright acidity, but there’s also something there giving it a bit of depth – some earth, maybe?

 

So it’s definitely not the light, blush-style rosé you’d usually get from a wine this pale, and it’s definitely lost most (all?) of the fruit on the nose, but I’m still happy to sip this wine on a warm summer evening. I wouldn’t recommend we all start aging our rosés, though.