Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve really jumped on the rosé bandwagon. After all, rosés are crisp, refreshing, can offer some good fruit flavors, and are very food friendly. As a drinker with a decided preference for red wines, however, sometimes a rosé just doesn’t do it for me. At times like that, we typically look towards our small store of chillable reds. The ’09 Rosa Luna from Fabbioli Cellars is technically a rosé wine, but the juice (sangiovese, if my memory serves me) saw extended skin contact, so I think it drinks more like a light-bodied chillable red. This made it a perfect wine for one of our “it’s still hot, but I want a red wine” nights.
This wine offered a ton of fruit. There was strawberry and watermelon on the nose. On the palate, I note strawberries, raspberries, and a hint of watermelon. As the wine warmed, a sweet/tart candy watermelon flavor (without the sugar) become more dominant. All the fruit was fun, and the wine felt a bit more substantial than the typical fruit-forward rosé.
I’m going to have to make sure I find some red/rosé wines made in this style for next summer for when I get these red wine cravings but it’s way to hot to allow me to enjoy an actual full-bodied red. What VA wines (or non-VA wines) would you put into this category?
Swirl, Sip, Snark 
September 20, 2011 at 9:03 am
This wine is definitely not a light and forgettable rose. Even the color is bigger and bolder. Disclosure: prior to inserting the photo, my work PC (which holds all of this blog’s photos) went down so I needed to take a photo of the now empty bottle. It’s clear, though,which means it doesn’t photograph well, so… I filled it with water and red food coloring and got really, really close. It was amazing that such a ruby red wine could be considered a rose! Of course, I chickened out at the end and used the black and white retro camera app on my phone.
As for the palate, this was a big, round, full, fruity rose. There was a lot going on and it did change a little as it warmed. I agree with my partner that we need to stockpile more of these for next summer.
September 20, 2011 at 9:08 am
Well…I hope next summer is hot and you stay on that Rose bandwagon and bring along the whole world because I can tell you that my Rose production is probably going up 400-500% this year.
This is a neat wine for sitting around on a summers evening. I would love it if all the Roses being made were atleast on the drier more traditional side of things. They can make such incredible wines.
September 20, 2011 at 11:57 am
Glad to see that Jordan since your rosé is one that I was going to mention.
We’ve been drinking way more rosé this year than in the past. Jordan’s and Fabbioli’s Rosa Luna were probably our favorites from VA along with one from Linden.
September 21, 2011 at 9:23 am
Jordan, I’m sure all that rose production isn’t a great sign for the 2011 harvest, but I’m sure we’ll be taking some off your hands next year.
Ed, we still haven’t managed to try Linden’s rose – this so needs to be rectified!
September 21, 2011 at 10:20 am
It sure is not a good sign for the 2011 vintage. At this point I would assume there will not be any high end wines made and that we will be making a lot more value wines instead of our Single Vineyards.
I think the wines will be good, but lighter and less intense then we are willing to accept for our top wines.
September 21, 2011 at 1:21 pm
I’m starting to hear some “on the record” chatting about this year’s difficulties, and things are pretty much as you’ve summed them up. I will be curious to see how many wineries pull back from their reserve-ish bottlings and stick to more “basic” labels (for lack of better phrasing) given the lighter style that will likely dominate this year….
September 21, 2011 at 1:23 pm
oh, Jordan…after our post on winery blogs earlier this week, a regular reader said to let you know that your blog seems to be getting spammed a lot these days. You may want to look into that (as well as that pesky RSS feed I keep nudging you about).