Wine Review: Four selections to try for Mother’s Day

Pink is the favored color for Mother’s Day, and I would like to suggest some of the pink rose wines that I am sure will please mom.

Rose wines are the great wine escape valve for those who want to serve a wine but are not sure if it will fit or clash with food being served. A rose wine can accompany almost everything; however, I would not recommend it for strongly flavored grilled foods as they may overpower the delicate flavors and aromas of the wine.

Let’s start by debunking a common misunderstanding: An erroneous explanation of how rose wines are made is by mixing red and white wines. Rose wines are made from red grapes whose skins, which are the color-producing element, have not been permitted to spend too much time in contact with the fermenting grape juice. For a red wine, the skins are permitted to ferment and thus impart their color, flavor and tannins to the wine.

A fact that you might not know is that the meat of a grape is white, so therefore It is always the skins that are responsible for the color. For a rose wine, only a brief period of contact is permitted between the skins and the must, or the freshly pressed grape juice containing the skins and stems of the grapes. That, however, is not all. The difficult part comes when the winemaker must decide when the proper color density has been achieved. That, too, is not as simple as it might seem. One of the properties of yeast is bleaching, so it therefore takes an experienced winemaker to judge when, accounting for bleaching and all the other factors that can ruin a wine, to remove the skins.

Not only do rose wines lie at the color midpoint between the white and red wines, but they also share some of the better flavor and aroma features of both varieties and in doing so account for the variety’s softer nature and its popularity.

Sonoma Cutrer Rose of Pinot Noir ($20)
This 100% pinot noir is a picture-perfect representative for this style but also the quality that the name Sonoma Cutrer represents. The wine shows a light pink and the prominent aromas of tangerine, strawberry and raspberry. In the background there’s a hint of watermelon and rose petals, all of which continue on to what can easily be called a faith-making finish. As you can probably guess, I enjoyed sampling this wine.

Ciros 2022 Rose of Malbec ($16)
This rose has been made from a grape variety that is not often seen in the rose format: malbec. The color is a vibrant pink and offers the aroma of strawberry, red cherry and hints of pepper that stay with the wine right through the finish. Another feature of this wine not found in many rose or even white wines is a heavier body. I believe that this wine should be experienced by the reader just to enjoy another view of a rose wine.

2022 Ehlers Estate Sylviane Rose ($38)
The color of this wine is a dark pink, and the aroma is a host of summer fruits featuring strawberries, white peach and pear that are backed up by subtle floral aromas. The flavor and finish reprises the aroma with hints of vanilla, fresh spice and summer berries. While the price of this wine may seem a bit high for a rose, I can assure the reader that this wine is worth every penny.

Antigal 2022 Uno Rose ($20)
The Antigal Uno is very easy to spot as its label features a three-inch numeral 1 that looks like it has been invited onto the bottle. The aroma of this wine is not delicate but right up front and very obvious and features strawberry, cherry and raspberry, with a hint of vanilla. This is a wine that will certainly delight Mom and be a bright spot during “her day.”

Wine columnist Bennet Bodenstein can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.