Today is the day for my Fifth Annual World’s Largest Blind Tasting of American True Rosé! Yeah, hard to believe that this is already the fifth year! In just a few hours, I, along with a few other wine professionals, will start making our way through 68 American True Rosés (actually, one is a saignée and one is from Argentina, but why quibble?).
As I have mentioned in this space countless times, a True Rosé is one that is made intentionally—the wine, from vine to bottle, has been farmed, picked, and vinified with the singular intention of becoming a pink wine. True Rosés are not by-products of red wine production—they are not made from the juice bled off (saignée) of a red wine (this is done to further concentrate the flavors of the red wine).
True Rosés, since they are intentionally made essentially like a white wine, it is my contention that they can age as a white wine can. Thus, of the 68, 26 are from the 2020 vintage, 34 from 2019, seven from 2018, and one 2017.
So, the fun starts at 1:00 this afternoon and will probably take us the better part of four hours. Yeah.
What are you up to today?
68 bottles of pink on the counter.
Getting chilly (hopefully).
