Pretty In Pink
We’ve probably endured enough whimsical articles about “la vie en rose” and how we should be “tickled pink” by surprisingly drinkable rose wines, but that’s not going to stop this miniature pink peroration. Perhaps it’s global warming, perhaps the adoption of an al fresco lifestyle, wherein at the first watery glimmer of the sun, tables are hurled willy-nilly onto pavements and all the coffee chains start serving frappacinos, or the fact that Mediterranean cuisine has become so popular both in restaurants and in our homes, or perhaps praise Ryanair and Easyjet for transporting us at the drop of a penny (plus taxes) to sunnier climes where any blushing wine (usually consumed in an impossibly picturesque location) forever trills the romance of abroad, a romance that only ros� can reignite in our veins, but - we are undoubtedly consuming more and more of the frolic wine. Rose is oddly the only one of the three colours (quick digression, I’m trying - and failing - to imagine a cheerful Kieslowski film: Three Colours - Pink.) that has been the subject of intensive marketing campaigns primarily due to brands such as Mateus and Blossom Hill - shudder - which are predicated on the notion that we choose to drink rose - almost as a statement of who we are. I prefer to attribute the growth of rose-drinking to all the reasons listed above plus one other: the inability to choose between red and white! Underlying this facetious point is a more serious one: rose is the classic modern “compromise wine,” a kind of superior house/Pinot Grigio default wine.
Rose is a by-product of red wine-making and will be either be guzzled by the grower’s family and friends or sold to local hostelries, but there are wines that are good enough to be considered on their own merits. Provence is the spiritual home of pink wine producing pale or pearly-pink wines scented with wild flowers, fennel and herbs and often as dry as the rocks from which the vines spring. Nor are the wines, except for powerful, menthol-intense wines of Bandol, particularly alcoholic; their delicacy makes them a pleasure to quaff uncritically, but also provides excellent accompaniment to oily fish such as mullet, sardines and is a dream with saffron-drenched, garlic-heavy fish soups and works equally well with stuffed aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes.
No matter the improvements in winemaking these are still wines to drink in the first flush and blush of youth. Elizabeth Barrett Browning might have been describing the effects of age on a bottle of pink wine when she wrote: “O rose, who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet, But pale, and hard, and dry, as stubblewheat - Kept seven years in a drawer, thy titles shame thee.” While the wine is still alive with beaded bubbles winking at the rim it lifts the spirits and makes one think of sunshine, summer or holidays.