The NY Times got it wrong this time... In my opinion.

This one took me a bit of time to digest. I read Eric Asimov's column in the Times two weeks ago (July 18th) where he talked about Rosé and have been contemplating and well, stewing about its content over the past couple weeks. I almost wrote this post in immediate response to the article but thought better of it because, in my opinion, there is good and bad in it. I didn't want to be reactory but I also didn't want to let it just "slip by".

Here is what I have come up with after revisiting it...

First of all the column strikes me as elitist. The first couple of paragraphs set the tone by talking about "purists" and the seasonality of Rosé, the idea that people drink them in the summer but hang up the Rosé glass for the rest of the year. They also write about how it has gone mainstream and suggest that this is somehow a bad thing. Why? There is a fall-off of big reds in the summer every year and the number of "Seasonal sippers" i.e. whites and rosés in the summer and reds in the colder months is nothing new. The industry is chock full of wine professionals that follow this pattern, I don't see the problem

They go on, here is the fourth paragraph:

“It’s the John Woo effect,” he said, referring to the action-movie director in explaining why he thinks rosés are becoming stronger and more alcoholic. “Everything is bigger, faster, stronger, harder.”

“There’s just a lot of mediocrity,” he said. “A lot of people drink rosé more as a state of mind than anything else."

Ok, choose a varietal, a style of wine or a growing region in any other category in the industry and show me that it is immune to this type of critism or promotionalism. This is simply the world we live in, there are producers in every category that are smaller, more artisic wine makers and at the other end of the spectrum there will be mass production "recipe" houses and others that produce gigantic overblown wines. 

Asimov does dial it back in and gets down to business so I don't want to get off on an uncontrolled rant as I sit here. He goes on to give rosés much of the credit that they deserve. He likes the "state of mind" that drinking rosé represents and is complimentary of the romanticism of these classics. He really does have a good grasp on these wines, at least the french contributions to the category. In fairness, France is almost always the comparitive wine when people are trying to come up with ways to describe what they are drinking. "Like a great Burgundy"... "This reminds me of a Margaux" etc... why should rosé be any different? Afterall THE classic region for these summer quaffs is Provence and it is a well deserved reputation. Like with most french wines they got it right! first.

My problem with the rest of the article is that he dismisses the rest of the world as having "a disappointingly high number" of wines that "fail to meet the test". Spain, Italy, and the good old USA are left swinging in the breeze and the column from there out only really talks about classic french wines. This is where I get rubbed the wrong way. First of all, wine is about personal taste. A very big problem with the elitists in the wine industry is that they are "right" and if you don't agree with them and agree with their findings your are "wrong" or "uneducated". That is dumb.

I like lamb, my wife doesn't. Is she wrong? I was a chef for the first half of my career so I have a more developed palate. Using the logic that is in the wine world, I am correct and she is incorrect. She does like lamb, she just doesn't know it or she isn't smart enough to like lamb, something stupid like that. One of the biggest battles we fight day to day is getting people to believe that their preferences are just that... Their preferences. Not right, not wrong, just their preference. Help me to understand what you, as an individual, like and I will help you to expand your personal enjoyment of wine.

I think the most difficult thing about this article is that there are so many variables to talk about including other areas that aren't even mentioned. Austria put on a great showing this year in the world of rosés for example and the 2012 vintage as a whole was good in so many places around the world. It really has been easy to pick a solid wine off of the rack no matter what the style you were looking for. Customers that were looking for something from France, USA, South Africa, Spain or Portugal, in a lighter or heavier style were treated to a great many good quality wines. For that reason I think Asimov missed the mark.

Finally, his pick for #1 Commanderie de Peyrassol, which is a personal favorite of mine through the years just as it is for him and most of the people on our staff, was disappointing to me this year. It needs more time to come together in my opinion. There is no harmony and it strikes me as disjointed. Our staff as a whole is in agreement with that opinion, but.... As I said earlier, it comes down to personal taste and if that is what he thinks is best this year, that is his opinion.
You have your own opinion and it is right for you just as mine is right for me.

Read his column, he shares a good bit of information about these wonderful wines, approach it open minded but use your own judgement when you are sipping the bottle that you select and see how much of what he says is "right" for you.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant.

Patrick

The article is here