Stop and Smell the Rosés

By Steve Siciliano

I have to admit that I did a little grumbling a few weeks ago when our wine buyer Sarah Derylo advised me that she was planning on adding some French rosés to our inventory. I’ve always been rather standoffish towards rosés simply because I assumed that they were cut from the same cloth as white zinfandels.

Not that there’s anything wrong with white zinfandels. They’re a little sweet for my tastes and some of them are a little one dimensional, but as a wine merchant I appreciate them because they can serve as a gateway for folks taking their tentative first steps into the world of wine.

Sarah, however, assured me that good French rosés can be bone dry and deliciously complex, and after trying a few of them at our in-store tasting a few weeks back I have to agree. I guess this proves that it’s never too late for a young oenophile to teach even a dogged old wine merchant something new.