In case you missed it, November 30th 2010 was Rose Revolution Day, where more than 30 global rose drink fests took place, with all sorts of social media (Twitter, Facebook) involvement to promote and discuss the merits of (hopefully) well made rosé.

Now rosé has been a wee bit of a conundrum for me in my wine drinking life. When I first started to learn about wine and take some serious level of interest, rosé seemed to be a bit of a bastard son. It was neither a white nor a red wine and not considered by the wine cognoscenti of the time to be worthy of any discussion, unless of course you were referring to champagne. Couple that with my first exposure to rosé being the mass marketed, sickly sweet brand Mateus - from which I got violently ill (though to be fair to Mateus it was really something I ate) which did indeed cement in my mind a very bad not so rosé-y memory.

To add insult to injury and send me running even farther away from rosé, in the States in the 1980’s the wine biz hit upon the idea of white Zinfandel or Blush wines. These were developed specifically to attract non-wine drinkers and were mostly lollie water masquerading as wine that catered to the average punters palate that claimed to drink dry, but truly loved sweet. These wines were simply awful – they should have been ashamed or banned from calling themselves ‘wine’.

My rosé epiphany came during a trip to Provence in France in October 1985 when by some weird weather quirk they were having a heat wave with weeks of temperatures that ran into the low to mid 30’s. Everywhere I went people were knocking back rosé like there was no tomorrow, so I decided to get with the locals and give it a try. Wow! This wine was a cat of different stripe – not exaggerated sweetness but fresh, pure fruit (strawberry, raspberry) flavours; not a cloying, amorphous palate or mouth feel but a dry, crisp, savoury almost meaty weight wine with a beautiful roundness and balance. This is what they meant when they meant rosé!

So today the rest of the wine world has done a bit of catching up with the French and real rosé is right here in our own backyard. Rosés are quite versatile too – you can sip them as is or pair them up with lots of different foods, but especially seafood with which they work marvels. So join the Rosé Revolution and start sipp’n this summer!

Charles Melton Rosé of Virginia 2010 $20
This is generally considered by many folks to be the premium benchmark for well-made Aussie rosé. The predominant grape variety is Grenache at 46%, but there is also quite a mix of additional varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Meunier and Mataro which are all co-fermented (not just blended at the end) to extract just the right amount of pink colour and tannins. The tannins add a nice savoury dimension and counter balance to the lush fruit but make no mistake, this is a full-bodied wine that may surprise some folks with its palate weight (might even fake out the French).

Teusner Wines ‘Salsa’ Rosé 2009 $18
I seem to review and mention Teusner wines quite a lot – well that’s because they are so damn good and seriously great value. Tasted this one with Dave Brookes at Teusner during my recent road trip visit and it is my kind of rosé, which is one that falls more in the savoury realm with a bit more gutsiness and weight on the palate. This wine is mostly Grenache and Mataro and 2009 was a great vintage in the Barossa for both those grapes. Mos def a wine to have with food (i.e., BBQ)! And keep your eyes peeled for an affordable ($17 to $19) drinking single vineyard Shiraz from the folks at Teusner & McWilliams called The Zeppelin.

FOSTER e ROCCO Rosé 2010 $27
Founded in 2008 by Sommeliers and friends, Adam Foster and Lincoln Riley (ex-Taxi, ex-Maze, awarded the prestigious Judy Hirst Australian Sommelier of the Year at the Fine Wine Partners/Gourmet Traveller Wine Awards 2008), Foster e Rocco base their wines (for now) on one grape – Sangiovese. The wines are made to be food friendly, and they are. As I mentioned above, some of the best rosés seem to be able to walk the fine line between fruit sweetness and savoury - offering a dry, refreshing & cleansing palate with a wonderfully textural mouth feel – this be one of those. If you come across the 2009 snatch it up, as that wine sees these boys & rosé at the peak of their powers.

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