An End of Model Year Special

Touraine Pineau d'Aunis Rosé, Clos Roche Blanche 2008
$15. 12% alcohol. Nomacorc. Importer: Louis/Dressner, New York, NY.
Popped and poured as something to whet the whistles while friends and I cooked on a recent Friday night, this was actually the first chance I'd had to drink any of CRB's '08 rosé. It's a little late in the season, I know, but I'm all for drinking the pink stuff throughout the year, not just in the sultry months. It's not as if I stop eating vegetables and fish, cooking with fresh herbs or simply wanting to taste something bright and invigorating just because the mercury starts its ineluctable dive toward the freezing mark.


I did somehow manage to forget to snap a picture, though, so I've recycled my own photo of the '07 version, taken in the warmer months of last year. The pic would be even more useful had I a shot of the more recent vintage with which to compare it, as the 2008 is far lighter in color than the '07, its painfully pale pink core going to green and silver highlights nearer the edges of the glass. Correspondingly, this is also far less fruity than last year's model; rather, it's much more about texture than forward fruit, marked by the characteristic rasp on the tongue of Pineau d'Aunis, backed up by whispered suggestions of lime zest, rosemary and haricots vert. It may be tougher to enjoy with casual aplomb, but it's hardly without its usual interest and merit.