Summer Rose Wine Craze Produces Pink Port, $100 `Cult' Bottle

Review by Elin McCoy

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- The light cherry-pink port in my glass, served over ice with a twist of lemon and a splash of soda, has little in common with the rich, sweet fortified wine I like to sip with walnuts in the winter by a fire.

It's not supposed to. I'm sampling the world's first rose- style port -- Croft Pink -- on an 80-degree day as the sun beats down on the sculpture garden at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Inside the Modern restaurant, Adrian Bridge, chief executive officer of Fladgate Partnership, hand in pocket of his double- breasted Savile Row suit, assures me that this new aperitif port is already being downed at trendy parties in the Hamptons.

My cynical wine antennae shoot up. Is pink port a delicious innovation or another marketing gimmick in the ever-expanding rose craze?

I've seen plenty of those ploys this summer -- like California cult winery Hundred Acres' silly ``Pink Gold'' ($30), a blend of red (cabernet) and white wine dosed with flecks of 24- karat gold.

To my surprise, Croft Pink ($20), made from traditional port grapes, has a refreshing, fruity flair, though it needs a shot of bubbly club soda to give its rich flavor and high alcohol some lift and zing. A slice of orange doesn't hurt either. Compared with, say, a powerful 1963 vintage port, this is a lightweight wine experience, though definitely sophisticated.

Since chilled pink has become the new white, all sorts of regions not known for rose are now jumping on the wine world's latest bandwagon -- with mixed results.

Portugal's Vinho Verde, for example, is adding dry rose to its classic crop of tart, light whites. I'd rather have the whites, thanks.

Pink Beaujolais

When it comes to Beaujolais rose I'm more enthusiastic, as the gamay grape makes bright, fruity pink quaffers that are winners with barbecue. Burgundy negociant Louis Jadot introduced its first one last summer, and the 2006 I drank on July 4 is crisp and raspberryish ($14). Even better is savory, spicy 2007 Terres Dorees Beaujolais Rose d'Folie ($14).

In dignified Bordeaux, top chateaux used to make roses as afterthoughts, serving them only at low-key family picnics. No longer. There pink wines are byproducts of concentrating the juice for great reds, especially in difficult vintages like 2007. The winemaker crushes red grapes, draws off some of the juice after a few hours of contact with the skins (the source of the color) have turned it pink, then ferments it.

Going Upscale

With rose's new popularity, though, major chateaux like Pavie, Pichon-Longueville-Baron, Calon-Segur, Haut-Bailly, Clarke and Smith-Haut-Lafitte are starting to bottle and sell theirs. Most are fresh, elegant, semi-serious and under $20, a quarter the price (or even less) of their reds; a couple even come with screw caps.

The sumptuous 2007 Rose de Domaine de Chevalier ($20) is a stylish connoisseur's choice; St.-Emilion's Chateau Lassegue offers a simple, easy-drinking rose with an insouciant name, Pink Criquet ($14).

What's driving the producers are numbers like these: For the year ended in June, U.S. sales of roses costing at least $6 grew 40 percent from the year-earlier period, according to AC Nielsen -- not bad compared with increases of 5.6 percent for all table wine. In France, the U.K., Japan and Australia, too, rose is soaring. In California, the big Clos du Bois winery has quadrupled its production.

``The good news is that there are a lot of new roses out there,'' says California rose pioneer Jeff Morgan, whose excellent SoloRosa brand makes only pink wines. ``The bad news is that many producers have no idea what it takes to make a good one.''

Lowbrow Marketing

Pink wine also seems to elicit lowbrow marketing aimed at romance-novel-reading women, and several years ago New Zealand's Kim Crawford winery brought out -- no joke -- Pansy Rose ($17) for the gay community. Not to be outdone, Domaine de Boyer in France's Languedoc-Roussillon region announced this month Tendre Bulle Gay Vin, a sparkling rose. Even the French Foreign Legion is marketing a Provencal rose under the Esprit de Corps label (7 euros).

What's next? The outrageously priced cult rose. Right now that's southern Provence's Chateau d'Esclans Garrus ($100), which owner Sacha Lichine first offered last summer. The 80-year-old grenache vines are picked only in the cool early morning, and the winemaker hails from Mouton.

No, I haven't tasted it yet, though I keep thinking that for the same price I could buy four bottles of rich, herb-scented Chateau Pradeaux Bandol or six of pale, savory Chateau de Rouet Cotes de Provence.

(Elin McCoy writes on wine and spirits for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Elin McCoy at emcwine@aol.com.

Last Updated: July 11, 2008 00:01 EDT