Hot In Little Rock

On a hot and muggy day, our favorite place to be is at the pool.  Of course we don’t go there when the sun is high in the sky.  We wait until later in the afternoon when we can join the grandchildren, just home from camp, and the rest of the family.  Late in the day a glass (or two or even three) of chilled rosé is always welcome.  All right, so we may be on a bit of a rosé kick right now.  What’s wrong with that?

Rosé is NOT that awful so-called “white zinfandel.”  Once, when we were returning from a visit to Boston to celebrate our spouse’s birthday, our daughter invited the in-laws to have dinner at a wonderful restaurant (all on our credit card!).  When we arrived for this “surprise” there was another surprise.  Our spouse’s sister had already ordered our wine.  It was the sticky, sweet, and perfectly awful “white zinfandel.”  We tried to be civil about this, but are quite sure we were not successful.
Frankly, we are not sure what actually goes into the “white zinfandel,” nor do we really care.

A good rosé, however, will  be carefully crafted and will have the characteristics of the grapes and terrior in which they were grown. The 2009 Rosé Vin de Pays des Cévennes from Domaine de Gournier is a blend of 35% Merlot, 30% Syrah, 15% Grenache, 10% Mourvedre and 10% Sangiovese.  The grapes are from the Rhone Valley, just north of the ancient city of Nimes, a wonderful city-with an ancient Roman coliseum where all sorts of musical events are held in the summer-in the South of France.  The area is rather scrappy and under laid with limestone.

The wine is the color of fresh salmon flesh.  The minerality is evident in the nose along with strawberries.  On the palate the fruit is just slightly tart (no hint of sticky sweetness) but round, with the addition of a bit of apricot.  Crisp, dry, and lovely, this rosé is perfect chilled and sipped, accompanied perhaps with some olives and dried apricots.

The only problem with this wonderful late afternoon is that we prefer just to recline and enjoy the wine.  The grandchildren have other ideas.  OK, into the pool.