Charles and Charles 2009 rose is a collaboration between Charles Smith of KVitners and Charles Bieler of Three Thieves, both of Washington state. This wine is a knock out and was the favorite wine of the evening with flavors of strawberry, raspberry, a little black pepper and even citrus on the back of the palate. It's dry and refreshing and perfect for a summer evening. But you better get it now as once it's gone, it's gone. And at only $12.99 a bottle, it will go fast.
And by the way, this group of friends noticed that almost all of the wines tasted better after they had warmed up a bit. Not room temperature, but not straight from the fridge. Just let it warm up for about a half hour after you pull it out off the ice or out of your chill chest (to quote Alton Brown.)
Cheers,
Sandy
This is definitely one of the better rosés that I've had this spring. Jeff at Pairings Food & Wine Market in Minnetonka was really excited that it was going to be available at their big tasting back in March, and it delivered on its hype; it was absolutely a crowd-pleaser. I got a lot of ripe raspberries out of this at first, and as it opened up (and warmed up), notes of grapefruit became very apparent to me.
ReplyDeleteIf the Charles & Charles is in my top three so far this season, the other two are the '08 rosé of Plavac Mali from Korta Katarina (bit of a watermelon Jolly Rancher thing going on) and the '09 rosé of Grignolino from Heitz Cellar (stunning coral color, floral, strawberry and citrus).
We generally serve our rosés at cellar temperature (~55 degrees) or slightly cooler, the same as our whites. Any colder than that and the aromas and flavors of the wine are significantly muted and we get the texture of the wine more than anything else.
I'll have to search it out
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