Pink Wine Is Just Great For Summertime
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday January 30, 2008
A few weeks ago I took to the task of mentioning the wine maker Turkey Flat and their excellent rose{aac} as many times in one column as I could get away with.
To my great surprise, it seems the people at Turkey Flat read the Mercury - and it is a surprise, given that the vineyard is in the Barossa Valley. Not only that, they took pity on my whining and sent me some of their rose{aac}. Which, of course, means they are truly excellent people.I'd found their rose{aac} by chance during a drive through the Barossa Valley with a mate. He was driving, so I made sure I "tasted" as much wine as possible.I'd never tasted a rose{aac} before, nor had I even heard of the variety before we walked into the Turkey Flat cellar door. I tried some, because it was alcohol and it was free. A few minutes later, I left with a bottle of what has since become one of my favourite wines. It was the "lolly shop" smell and fruity, slightly sweet yet also tart taste that hooked me. It was both good and bad that such a high-quality rose{aac} served as my introduction to the variety. Good in that a poor-tasting version might have put me of rose{aac} from the start. But bad in that it's become the benchmark by which other rose{aac}s are judged. Most are found wanting.It's a confused wine in a way - it's a red that thinks it's a white. Using red grapes, it's made in the style of a white. It gets the light pink colour from having the grape skins being added for a short time (in case you didn't know, red wine gets its colour from skins, not the juice. If you squeeze a red grape with your fingers you'll see the juice that runs out is clear).Rose{aac}, unlike other reds, is stored in the fridge and served chilled. Perhaps because it's not a "real" red - or maybe it's the pinky colour - rose{aac} used to be viewed as a wussy drink, something you order for the girls. But that's changed over the past few years as more people realise how perfect it is for summertime drinking.It's cool, refreshing and goes with an incredible range of foods. If you can cook it on a barbecue, a rose{aac} will go with it.But me, I'm just as happy to drink it on its own.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury
