The right rosé could be
the perfect wine for your next meal
Story by Pete Martin
Published April 26, 2016
The Greenville News
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If you find the idea of drinking rosé wine unappealing, it might be time to change the way you think about rosé.
Just because a wine is pink or salmon colored doesn’t mean it has to be cloyingly sweet, unsophisticated and one-dimensional. A recent tasting of three wines from Chateau Sainte Roseline proved that a well-made rosé is a wine worthy of consideration.
Aurélie Bertin, owner and manager of Chateau Sainte Roseline, holds a bottle of Lamp de Meduse rosé wine. PHOTO: Pete Martin
Chateau Sainte Roseline is a world-class vineyard created by Pope John XXII in the Provence region of southeastern France. It dates back to the 12th century.
“They’ve actually been growing grapes on the property since the 14th century,” said Stephanie Moore, regional sales manager with Banks Channel, a North Carolina based importer of wine. “The winery itself is named after a young lady who was Mother Superior on the property from 1300 to 1329. Her body is laid to rest in a glass sarcophagus at the abbey directly next to the winery.”
In addition to being an historically rich site, Chateau Sainte Roseline is also recognized as a vineyard of quality, being one of only 18 cru-class vineyards in the world for Provence rosé.
Currently, the winery distributes three rosés in the United States.
“We are waiting on new reviews from all the major publications, but last year, everything was 88 to 90 points,” Moore said. “And 2015 was a fantastic vintage.”
Perle de Roseline ($15) is the entry-level offering. It is made with cinsaut, grenache, syrah and carignan grapes. Love de Roseline ($17) is a middle-tier offering, made with cinsaut, grenache and syrah. Lampe de Meduse ($20) is the winery’s flagship rosé. It is made with fruit exclusively from the winery’s cru vineyards — grenache, mourvedre, cinsaut, syrah and tibouren.
Lampe de Meduse is notable for being distributed in a uniquely shaped bottle that was created back in the 1950s by a previous owner of the winery. The top of the bottle is shaped like a traditional Alsatian-style bottle, while the bottom is designed to look like a perfume bottle, a nod to a nearby town famous for its fragrances.
“This is a unique bottle for a unique wine,” Aurélie Bertin, owner and manager of Chateau Sainte Roseline, said during a tasting at Passerelle Bistro in Greenville in early April. “It’s a very complex and intense wine on the nose. You have grapefruit and citrus notes. And on the palate it’s a full-bodied wine, very fat and round. You get also citrus notes on the palate and a very nice finish.”
In countries such as France, rosé is consumed year-round. In the United States, however, rosé tends to be a seasonal wine that is more popular in the warmer months. But that may be changing.
Bertin said rosé today makes up about 30 percent of wine consumption in France. In 1994, when her father bought Chateau Sainte Roseline, rosé made up only 7 percent. She said rosé likely makes up less than 10 percent of current wine consumption in the United States.
“This kind of rosé, intense and complex, can pair with a lot of food. When you are with friends — a barbecue party, for example — you bring rosé. Rosé wine is easy to drink."
— Aurélie Bertin
Owner and manager of Chateau Sainte Roseline
“This kind of rosé, intense and complex, can pair with a lot of food,” she said. “When you are with friends — a barbecue party, for example — you bring rosé. Rosé wine is easy to drink.”
Moore agreed.
“These are bone dry,” she said. “True Provence rosé will be that drier style. They will also be lighter in color. In Provence if you make one that is hot pink, no one will buy it. This year, typically the wines tend to be even lighter in color.”
According to Bertin, a good rosé is a versatile wine that pairs well with almost any food.
“You can serve it with all kinds of white meat — chicken or veal,” she said. “It’s very good also with Asian foods like sushi and Thai food. You can also serve it with fish and all kinds of salad — seafood salad, salad with salmon and avocado.”
The main difference between her three wines, Bertin said, is body.
“The Perle is a very nice rosé, easy to drink,” she said. “You can drink it any time of the day without food. It is very light, fruity rosé. When you go with the Love you get more complexity, more structure. And with Lampe you have a very complex and intense product. You gain in complexity and intensity.”
Bertin, who bought Chateau Sainte Roseline from her father in 2007, has been distributing her wines in the United States for the last two years. She is excited, however, by the growth potential.
“You have a huge potential here,” Bertin said. “It’s a new color for the U.S. But the demand is increasing every year. A rosé from Provence is a dry rosé. It’s not too sweet.”