Is pink in?

[Scoop]

A wholehearted second on the Bonny Doon Vin Gris.

It so happens the The New York Times, in its biweekly wine feature last week (the section is described in another, recent posting), focused on the pink. Of the 10 they reported on -- i.e. the 10 that made their final cut -- the Bonny Doon was the consensus favorite (2 and a half stars out of 4 in their rating scale). After reading that feature, and out at a restaurant the next night, my wife and I were in a rose mood. Among the three roses on the list (which included the very consistently good Regaleali mentioned by Roberto), the Vin Gris was there, so we decided to see if the NYT was on the mark. The verdict: it's a pretty darn good wine, with refreshing red berry fruit, faint touches of pepper, adequate acidity and a moderately long finish. And it worked brilliantly with the grilled sardines! So we agreed with Prial, Asimov, Hesser and the guest sommelier this time around.

Continuing with the pink line of thinking, a recent issue of Saveur featured Rosados from Navarra (Spain), where pink is ancient tradition, not an afterthought or marketing gimmick. I happened to find one that Saveur recommended in a local store, Chivite's (sp?) Gran Feuda 2000, so I bought it to try with Foodie, since we were considering another summer rose for Is-Wine. Saveur called it "elegant" and "long"; we found it "initially pleasant" but "simple" and "short". Altogether underwhelming compared with the glowing endorsement from that foodie (not Foodie) bible.

The moral of the story: such features can be good sources for leads on wines to try, especially those with wide distribution, but in the end, trust your own taste buds to confirm (or reject) their pronouncements (that's part of the fun). And report those findings on the Board.

Caveat reader.

Cheers,

Scoop